1203 dated events (incident dates, plus the steps in each incident’s sequence of events) fall on 425 of the 629 days since the second term began on January 20, 2025, which is day 1. Earlier incidents are in the register. Open a month to read it.
Shortly after Trump's second inauguration, the administration begins systematically firing immigration judges. Unlike the rare pre-Trump dismissals, these are done without stated cause, without due process, and without explanation.
Trump administration takes office and begins escalating immigration enforcement operations in Florida.
From: Torture and Enforced Disappearances at 'Alligator Alcatraz' and Krome Detention Centers
Trump signs 'Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship,' framing the administration's approach to media and platform regulation.
From: FCC Broadcast License Threats and Government Coercion of Media
President Trump signs an executive order on inauguration day directing the development of new travel bans for national security purposes, signaling an expansion beyond the first-term restrictions.
From: Expanded Travel Ban Targeting Up to 39 Countries, Predominantly Muslim and African Nations
On Inauguration Day, Trump announces 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and additional tariffs on China. Markets react negatively. Negotiations begin with trading partners.
From: 2025 Tariff Shock: Sweeping Import Taxes Trigger Global Trade Crisis
President Trump signed Executive Order 14165 ('Securing Our Borders'), directing the DHS Secretary to terminate all categorical parole programs deemed contrary to the new administration's immigration policies.
From: Termination of CHNV Humanitarian Parole for 532,000 People
Following the inauguration, expanded ICE enforcement operations begin occurring near and on tribal lands across the Southwest. The Navajo Nation begins documenting encounters between ICE agents and tribal citizens.
The Trump administration imposes a government-wide hiring freeze on Day 1, preventing the NWS from filling existing vacancies. Combined with normal attrition, this begins degrading forecast office staffing levels.
From: DOGE Guts National Weather Service: 30 Offices Lose Lead Meteorologists Ahead of Hurricane Season
The State Department concludes that members of the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan. Human Rights Watch and a UN panel have documented RSF atrocities in West Darfur, including ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity against the Masalit people.
Elon Musk begins leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with broad access to federal agencies, while his companies hold over $38 billion in cumulative government contracts and funding.
From: CFPB Dismantlement While Musk Launches Competing XMoney Payment Service
On Inauguration Day, Trump signs Executive Order 14163, suspending all refugee admissions globally. The order allows only case-by-case admissions that the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security find to be in the national interest; it does not mention South Africa.
From: White Afrikaner Refugee Program: 1,648 of 1,651 US Refugees Are White South Africans
Executive Order 14168 defines gender as an immutable male-female binary, requires housing transgender detainees by birth sex, withholds gender-affirming care in federal facilities, and prohibits gender self-identification on federal documents, creating documented risks of violence and denial of medical care.
On his first day in office, President Trump issued Proclamation 10888, declaring an 'invasion' at the southern border and suspending the ability of migrants to seek asylum there. A federal judge held the proclamation's removal scheme unlawful, and the D.C. Circuit affirmed on April 24, 2026.
Executive Order 14160 attempted to deny U.S. citizenship to children born on American soil to parents present temporarily or without lawful status, directly contradicting the plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment. Four federal district courts and two appeals courts blocked it, and on June 30, 2026 the Supreme Court struck it down in Trump v. Barbara (6-3).
Within hours of taking office on January 20, 2025, the Trump administration shut down the CBP One app — the primary legal pathway for asylum seekers to schedule appointments at the southern border. Approximately 30,000 existing appointments were cancelled instantly, and an estimated 270,000 migrants who had been using the app were left stranded in Mexican border cities with no alternative legal pathway.
Beyond the January 2026 oil embargo, the broader US sanctions regime against Cuba has been systematically tightened since January 2025, causing 20-hour blackouts, hospital shutdowns, medication shortages affecting 5 million people with chronic illnesses, and collapse of basic services including water, sanitation, and public transport. UN human rights experts condemned the measures as likely amounting to collective punishment of civilians, with fuel imports cut by approximately 90 percent.
On January 20, 2025, Trump signed an executive order reversing Biden's moratorium on federal executions and directing the attorney general to seek the death penalty for all 'appropriate' cases — and in all cases of murder of law enforcement officers or murders committed by undocumented immigrants 'regardless of other factors.' AG Bondi issued implementing guidance on February 5, 2025. The mandatory pursuit of capital punishment specifically for immigrants creates a two-tier system where the same crime carries different consequences based on immigration status.
On his first day in office, President Trump signed Executive Order 14151 directing the termination of all federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, offices, and positions. DOGE implemented the purge through a three-phase playbook, placing workers on administrative leave within hours and directing agencies to compile lists of DEI employees for termination. Thousands of federal workers were fired — many of whom had nothing to do with DEI in their current roles.
Elon Musk's DOGE associates — including a 25-year-old engineer with racist social media posts and a Broadcom executive — were granted access to the Treasury Department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service payment system, which processes over $6 trillion in annual payments. One associate was mistakenly given 'write' access capable of altering payment records. Multiple court battles ensued: federal judges in New York temporarily blocked DOGE access, one calling the rollout 'chaotic and haphazard,' while in a separate union case the Fourth Circuit in August 2025 vacated a Maryland injunction against DOGE access to Treasury, Education and OPM data.
The Trump administration established a 'Weaponization Working Group' at the DOJ led by political loyalist Ed Martin, fired over 20 DOJ officials who worked on Trump investigations, indicted political opponents Letitia James and James Comey on charges later dismissed as brought by an unlawfully appointed prosecutor, gutted the Civil Rights Division (70% of lawyers departed), dismantled the Public Integrity Section, and drove over 100 prosecutors to resign citing political interference — constituting the most aggressive politicization of federal law enforcement in modern American history.
The Trump administration withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the IPCC — an unprecedented triple withdrawal from the international climate architecture. The EPA rescinded the 2009 endangerment finding that greenhouse gases threaten public health, targeted 31+ environmental rules for rollback, and imposed a 10-for-1 deregulation mandate. The combined effect dismantles decades of environmental protection and removes the US from global climate governance.
The Trump administration detained parents of at least 11,000 US citizen children in the first seven months of the second term. The Office of Refugee Resettlement virtually stopped releasing children to relatives, average custody time rose from one month to over six months, and a KFF Health News investigation found officials were using children as bait to lure and arrest parents.
The Trump administration has systematically dismantled FEMA through a combination of budget cuts ($646 million proposed reduction), mass layoffs (from 29,000 to 23,000 employees, with plans to cut 50% of the total workforce), elimination of grant programs including the BRIC disaster preparedness program, and termination of disaster response staff. The surge workforce — teams that deploy after major disasters — faces an 85% cut. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and President Trump have publicly stated their intent to dismantle or fundamentally restructure the agency.
The Trump administration made threats of military and economic force to annex Greenland and 'take back' the Panama Canal, including directing the Pentagon to develop military invasion plans. Seven European leaders issued a joint statement in January 2026. Trump threatened escalating tariffs on eight European countries over Greenland in January 2026, then ruled out force and dropped the tariffs at Davos on January 21, 2026.
Since January 2025, 46 people have died in ICE custody or detention facilities — a two-decade high. The death rate reached 5.6 per 10,000 detainees in 2025, the highest since the COVID-19 pandemic year. In October 2025, ICE halted payments to medical care contractors after the VA terminated a reimbursement agreement, leading some medical providers to deny services to detainees even as the detained population broke records.
On January 20, 2025, the Trump administration rescinded the longstanding policy protecting churches, schools, hospitals, and other sensitive locations from ICE enforcement operations. Over the same period, the share of ICE detainees with no criminal record rose from 6% in January 2025 to 41% by December 2025, part of a broader enforcement surge not attributable to this rescission alone. ICE's detainee population reached a record 73,000.
On his first day back in office, Trump granted sweeping clemency to January 6 defendants, issuing full pardons for most and commuting 14 remaining sentences, including for people convicted of assaulting police officers and leaders of groups convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Elon Musk led DOGE in terminating billions in government contracts while his own companies — SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and others — hold over $38 billion in cumulative government contracts, loans, and subsidies. Not a single Musk company contract was terminated. SpaceX received a $5.9 billion Pentagon contract during the DOGE cuts. Musk was left to police his own conflicts of interest.
President Trump has granted clemency to over 88 individuals in his second term, with more than half convicted of white-collar crimes including money laundering, bank fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion. The pardons have erased over $298 million in individual fines and restitution, and House Democrats estimate $1.3 billion total in victim repayment wiped out. Trump granted clemency to at least 16 corrupt politicians (per CREW), fired the head of the Office of the Pardon Attorney, and largely dismantled the DOJ Public Integrity Section that investigates political corruption.
On Inauguration Day, the Trump administration froze all foreign assistance, including PEPFAR — the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — cutting life-saving antiretroviral therapy to an estimated 20 million people across sub-Saharan Africa. PEPFAR was funding 70% of the global HIV/AIDS treatment program. Treatment interruptions cause viral rebound, immune collapse, and death within weeks to months. Health experts estimated the freeze could cause hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Between January 2025 and February 2026, ICE deported 363 pregnant, postpartum, and nursing women, with 16 miscarriages recorded in custody. Women reported being shackled while actively miscarrying, denied prenatal care, and subjected to invasive medical procedures without consent. As of February 2026, 86 pregnant women were in ICE custody, including 9 in their final trimester, in violation of ICE's own directive against detaining pregnant individuals.
ICE enforcement under the Trump administration has produced systematic racial profiling, with Latinos accounting for 9 out of 10 arrests in the first six months of 2025, 76% of raids targeting majority-Latino neighborhoods, and the Supreme Court staying a district-court order that had barred immigration stops based on apparent race, language, location and occupation. Multiple US citizens have been wrongfully detained — one for 10 days — based on their appearance. At least 170 citizen detentions were confirmed by ProPublica by October 2025. Border czar Tom Homan acknowledged ICE has made 'collateral arrests' of 'many' American citizens.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order indefinitely suspending the US Refugee Admissions Program. The administration later set the lowest refugee admissions cap in US history at 7,500 for FY 2026 -- down from 125,000 under Biden -- with priority allocated to white South African Afrikaners. Litigation in Pacito v. Trump resulted in limited court-ordered admissions before the Ninth Circuit largely reversed the injunction.
The Trump administration has enacted or initiated at least 7 of 29 Project 2025 reproductive rights objectives, including withdrawing from EMTALA abortion lawsuits, prohibiting USAID reproductive health funding, banning DoD abortion travel funding, enforcing the Hyde Amendment, and laying groundwork to misuse the 1873 Comstock Act to effectively ban abortion nationwide by criminalizing the mailing of mifepristone and medical equipment used for abortion care.
The Trump administration threatened and attempted to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities and their entire states, expanding threats beyond individual cities to state-level punishment. A federal judge blocked the funding cutoffs as unconstitutional, but the administration announced plans to deny funding to all states hosting sanctuary cities starting February 1, 2026, and Congress is considering legislation to condition health, education, and transportation funding on immigration cooperation.
The Trump administration systematically revoked security clearances from over 100 former officials, political opponents, and critics across multiple executive actions — targeting 51 former intelligence officials who signed the 2020 Hunter Biden laptop letter, revoking clearances from prosecutors who investigated Trump, stripping clearances from state officials who brought legal actions against Trump, and targeting the former CISA director and his entire company for contradicting Trump's election fraud claims.
The Trump administration dramatically escalated US airstrikes in Somalia beginning in 2025, with AFRICOM conducting 38 strikes by June 10, 2025 — almost four times its total for all of 2024. Independent monitors at Airwars estimate 85 to 162 civilian deaths from US actions in Somalia since 2007, while AFRICOM has assessed zero civilian casualties. AFRICOM stopped publishing casualty estimates in April-May 2025 and has never paid compensation for any civilian death in Somalia.
On January 20, 2025, Trump signed an executive order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — a body led by Elon Musk with no formal legal authority — and gave it access to government payment systems, personnel records, and agency operations. DOGE teams, comprised largely of young Musk associates with no federal experience or security clearances, accessed Treasury Department payment systems controlling trillions of dollars, terminated tens of thousands of federal employees, dismantled USAID, and effectively shut down agencies including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Voice of America, in many cases without Congressional authorization.
Beginning on his first day in office, Trump launched what the administration described as the 'largest deportation operation in American history.' The operation involved ICE raids in cities across the country, arrests of individuals with no criminal records, detention of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents in error, and deportation flights to third countries including El Salvador and Honduras. The administration struck a deal with El Salvador to house deportees in CECOT, a maximum-security prison known for human rights abuses. U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents were among those wrongly detained, and U.S.-citizen children were removed with their deported mothers in April 2025.
On his first day in office in January 2025, Trump reinstated Schedule F — an executive order he had first signed in October 2020 and Biden had rescinded — reclassifying tens of thousands of federal employees whose positions 'include policymaking' from civil service protection into at-will status. Simultaneously, the Office of Personnel Management sent an email offering 'deferred resignation' to most of the 2.3 million federal civilian workforce, with a deadline to respond. The combination, alongside mass firings of career employees, probationary workers, and political opponents across agencies, represented the most sweeping dismantlement of the career civil service since its establishment after the Pendleton Act of 1883.
In February 2025 the Trump administration indefinitely barred the Associated Press from press pool events, including in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One, for refusing to adopt the administration's preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico, and on February 25, 2025 took control of press pool composition from the White House Correspondents' Association. A federal judge enjoined the AP exclusion in April 2025; in June 2025 a divided D.C. Circuit panel stayed that injunction in part.
The Trump administration systematically dismantled USAID beginning January 2025, abolishing overseas positions, separating most employees, and transferring residual functions to the State Department. A Lancet study (July 2025) projected that defunding USAID could cause more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030; a February 2026 study reported by CNN projected 9.4 million deaths by 2030 from global aid cuts by multiple donors. 23 million children lost access to education and 95 million people lost access to basic healthcare.
The Trump administration systematically destroyed government oversight infrastructure by firing 17 inspectors general, removing the heads of the Office of Special Counsel and Office of Government Ethics, stripping job protections from thousands of federal workers, and creating conditions where whistleblower retaliation cases at the Department of Energy increased 9x year-over-year. Federal employees report being 'terrified' to report wrongdoing, speak up, or disagree with DOGE.
On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14155 initiating US withdrawal from the World Health Organization, and the withdrawal took effect on January 22, 2026. The 1948 joint resolution under which the US joined the WHO reserves a right to withdraw on one year's notice, provided that US financial obligations to the WHO are met in full for the organization's current fiscal year. When the withdrawal took effect, the WHO said the US had not paid about $260 million it owed for 2024 and 2025; ABC News, citing the UN, put the figure at more than $270 million. HHS disputes that payment is required.
Trump returns to office and continues demanding 5% GDP defense spending from allies with withdrawal threats. The NATO pressure is combined with Ukraine aid freeze and Russia-friendly peace framework, creating cumulative threat to European security architecture.
From: NATO Article 5 Threats: Encouraging Russia to Attack Allies Who Don't Pay
On his first day back in office, Trump pardons most January 6 defendants and commutes the sentences of 14 members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, including Stewart Rhodes.
From: January 6 Capitol Insurrection: Incitement of an Attack on Democratic Transition of Power
On Inauguration Day, Trump pardons or commutes sentences for defendants convicted in connection with January 6, including those convicted of seditious conspiracy. Approximately 1,500 individuals have their cases resolved by executive action.
From: January 6: Capitol Insurrection, Incitement, Second Impeachment, Supreme Court Immunity
Treasury official David Lebryk denies DOGE access to sensitive payment systems. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent overrules the decision, and Lebryk resigns rather than comply with the directive to grant access.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
Reports emerge of Haitian families who traveled to Tijuana specifically for CBP One appointments now stranded in limbo, with no alternative pathway and no means to return to their countries of origin.
From: CBP One App Shutdown: 30,000 Asylum Appointments Cancelled, 270,000 Stranded
OPM directs all agencies to report lists of DEIA offices, employees, and contractors by noon on January 23. Agencies must develop written plans for reduction-in-force actions targeting DEI employees. Federal DEI workers across government are immediately placed on administrative leave.
From: DOGE-Directed Elimination of Federal DEI Programs and Mass Firings of DEI Workers
Marko Elez, a 25-year-old software engineer, begins working as a Treasury employee with access to payment systems. He is later discovered to have been mistakenly granted 'write' access to a sensitive payments database — the ability to alter payment records in a system handling $6 trillion annually.
From: DOGE Associates Gained Access to $6 Trillion Treasury Payment System
Stewart Rhodes is released from federal prison in Cumberland, Maryland shortly after midnight, and Enrique Tarrio is released from prison later that day. Both had been serving sentences of 18 and 22 years respectively for seditious conspiracy.
From: Blanket Clemency for January 6 Defendants, Including Violent Offenders
The Department of Justice moves to dismiss all pending January 6 cases in accordance with the clemency proclamation, ending prosecutions of defendants whose cases had not yet gone to trial.
From: Blanket Clemency for January 6 Defendants, Including Violent Offenders
President Trump signs an executive order initiating the process to redesignate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, reversing Biden's revocation.
From: Houthi FTO Redesignation Chills Humanitarian Operations for 19.5 Million Yemenis
The Trump administration deployed over 10,000 active-duty troops to the US-Mexico border for immigration enforcement, including intelligence personnel and a 250-mile 'national defense area.' No court ruling on the border deployments is cited here. Separately, a federal judge ruled in September 2025 that the administration 'willfully' violated the Posse Comitatus Act by using federalized National Guard troops for law enforcement in Los Angeles.
On January 22, 2025, Trump issued an executive order reinstating 'Schedule F' (renamed Schedule Policy/Career), directing reclassification of approximately 50,000 federal employees into a new category stripped of civil service protections including appeal rights, whistleblower protections, and protection from political firing. OPM published the final rule on February 6, 2026. The rule describes existing civil service protections as 'unconstitutional overcorrections' and allows removal for 'subversion of presidential directives.' Over 30 unions and advocacy groups have filed or pledged lawsuits.
Immigration advocacy organizations file initial legal challenges to the CBP One shutdown and accompanying asylum ban executive orders, arguing violations of the Immigration and Nationality Act and US obligations under the Refugee Convention.
From: CBP One App Shutdown: 30,000 Asylum Appointments Cancelled, 270,000 Stranded
The DOJ withdraws from lawsuits seeking to enforce EMTALA's requirement that hospitals provide stabilizing care including abortion in medical emergencies.
From: Restrictions on Reproductive Rights and Comstock Act Revival
The US submits its notice of withdrawal, starting the one-year notice period reserved in the 1948 joint resolution.
From: US Withdrawal from the World Health Organization With 2024–25 Dues Unpaid
HRW published an analysis concluding the order 'moves to reject transgender identity and rights' across the federal government.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Transgender Rights and Gender Identity Recognition
A federal judge in Washington state issued a temporary restraining order, calling the executive order 'blatantly unconstitutional.'
From: Executive Order Attempting to Restrict Fourteenth Amendment Birthright Citizenship
Trump fires 17 federal inspectors general — the independent agency watchdogs — in a single evening without the 30-day Congressional notice required by statute. On September 24, 2025, a federal judge finds the firings violated the Inspector General Act but declines to reinstate the inspectors general.
From: DOGE: Musk-Led Dismantlement of Federal Agencies Without Congressional Authorization
Trump removed at least 17 inspectors general across federal agencies in a single night without the notice to Congress that the governing statute generally requires. A later district-court ruling said the notice failure violated the statute while leaving reinstatement unresolved.
Trump fires 17 inspectors general across the executive branch, four days after returning to office, removing independent watchdogs without the 30-day congressional notice required by law.
From: Dismantlement of Whistleblower Protections and Government Oversight Infrastructure
A $500 million plan by Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners to build a Trump Tower hotel and luxury residences in downtown Belgrade is announced. Serbia subsequently passes special legislation to enable the project despite opposition.
From: Trump Emoluments: Foreign Government Payments Through Business Deals, Gifts, and Cryptocurrency
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump says he would like Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations to take in more Palestinians from Gaza: 'You're talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.'
From: Trump Proposes Forcible Displacement of 2.3 Million Palestinians from Gaza
Within the first week, reports emerge from Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia of PEPFAR-funded clinics shutting down, antiretroviral drug supplies running out, and patients being turned away. Health workers describe patients who have been stable for years unable to access their medication.
From: PEPFAR Freeze: HIV/AIDS Treatment Cut for 20 Million People Across Africa
On January 26, 2025, the Trump administration threatened Colombia with 25% tariffs (escalating to 50%), visa sanctions, a travel ban, and enhanced customs inspections after Colombian President Petro refused to accept deportation flights on US military aircraft. Colombia capitulated within hours, agreeing to unrestricted acceptance of all deportees including on military planes. The episode demonstrated the administration's willingness to weaponize economic coercion to force sovereign nations to accept deportation terms that treated migrants as military cargo.
The Trump administration launched a systematic campaign against organized labor: firing NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox to destroy the board's quorum (the first-ever removal of an NLRB member mid-term), firing NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, issuing an executive order stripping collective bargaining rights from 950,000 federal employees by falsely designating their agencies as performing 'national security' work, and extending that order to NASA, NOAA, and the National Weather Service. A federal judge found Wilcox's firing unlawful under the removal protections then in force, but the Supreme Court allowed her removal to stand pending appeal, leaving the NLRB without a quorum to hear cases; in June 2026 the Court overruled Humphrey's Executor in Trump v. Slaughter, validating such removals as a matter of US law.
On January 27, 2025, a week after returning to office, Trump signed Executive Order 14183 ('Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness'), reinstating the ban on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military. The order went beyond the first-term ban: it directed the military to immediately cease providing gender-affirming medical care to currently serving transgender service members, required them to serve 'in accordance with their sex' (meaning birth sex), and directed their discharge unless an exception was granted. Estimates of the number affected range from the 4,240 service members the Pentagon said in December 2024 had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria to advocacy estimates of about 15,000 transgender service members; some had served for years and had transition-related care integrated into their service history.
US deportation flights to Colombia resume using military aircraft as demanded. The Colombian presidential plane is prepared to assist in repatriating citizens.
From: Colombia Deportation Standoff: Economic Coercion via Tariff Threats
Trump signs Executive Order 14183, 'Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,' banning transgender people from military service and directing Defense Secretary Hegseth to submit an implementation plan within 30 days.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Transgender Rights and Gender Identity Recognition
All refugee processing, admissions, and related funding were halted. Refugees mid-transit had flights cancelled, some after selling their belongings.
From: Indefinite Suspension of US Refugee Admissions Program and Record-Low Resettlement Cap
Trump signs Executive Order 14187, directing the HHS Secretary to take appropriate actions consistent with law to end the use of federal funding for such care for children. CMS states the final rule does not depend on this order or on Executive Order 14168, both of which are in litigation.
Beginning in January 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) orchestrated the largest reduction of the federal civilian workforce in modern history. Through a 'Fork in the Road' mass resignation program, illegal firings of probationary employees, and agency-wide reductions in force, approximately 300,000 federal workers were laid off or pressured to resign, gutting agency capacity across government.
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) gained access to Treasury payment systems, OPM personnel records, and Social Security Administration databases containing Americans' personal data — including Social Security numbers, bank accounts, and tax information — without proper authorization, background checks, or legal basis. Multiple federal judges blocked access and ordered data deletion, but the Supreme Court ultimately allowed access to SSA data. A whistleblower revealed DOGE shared personal data with DHS and consulted with a political advocacy group about matching SSA data with voter rolls.
UNAIDS warns that interruption of antiretroviral therapy causes viral rebound within weeks and can result in death within months. WHO calls for immediate humanitarian exemptions. Health experts estimate the freeze could cause hundreds of thousands of deaths if prolonged.
From: PEPFAR Freeze: HIV/AIDS Treatment Cut for 20 Million People Across Africa
DOGE associates gain access to Treasury Department payment systems controlling trillions of dollars in federal disbursements. Senior Treasury career officials raise concerns and are removed. Courts issue emergency stays.
From: DOGE: Musk-Led Dismantlement of Federal Agencies Without Congressional Authorization
OPM sends email offering deferred resignation to approximately 2.3 million civilian federal workers, with a deadline to respond. The email promises continued pay through approximately September 2025. Workers who accept give up reinstatement rights. Tens of thousands accept.
From: Schedule F and Federal Worker Purge: Dismantling Civil Service Protections
About 830 immigrants were transferred to the Guantanamo Bay Migrant Operations Center in the year after January 2025, most for days to weeks. Detainees describe isolation in cells for up to 23 hours a day, being tied to a chair as punishment, strip searches, and denial of contact with families or attorneys; Human Rights Watch says the conditions may amount to ill-treatment prohibited under international law. Multiple federal lawsuits by ACLU, CCR, and IRAP challenge the detention as unlawful.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth withdraws Milley's security detail, suspends his clearance and orders an inspector-general review of his conduct (NPR).
Since Trump's January 30, 2025 executive order to 'combat anti-Semitism on campuses,' roughly 1,700 international students had their visas revoked or student status terminated by April 2025. Secretary of State Rubio put the number of activism-related revocations at about 300; many other terminations followed minor legal infractions such as traffic violations, while a number targeted students who participated in pro-Palestine campus protests. The State Department deployed AI tools to screen social media for 'pro-Hamas' content and testified that criticizing the state of Israel could constitute grounds for visa revocation. Notable cases include the ICE arrest of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil (a green card holder) and the detention of Tufts doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent formally grants DOGE associates access to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service payment systems, overriding internal objections from career officials about the security and legal implications of giving outside personnel access to the $6 trillion payment infrastructure.
From: DOGE Associates Gained Access to $6 Trillion Treasury Payment System
Trump issues an executive order requiring federal agencies to eliminate 10 existing regulations for every new one implemented, creating a structural mechanism for dismantling environmental protections.
Following his confirmation as Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth begins eliminating civilian harm mitigation positions across combatant commands. Personnel fall from about 160 to about 16, and funding for civilian harm data platforms ends.
From: Pentagon IG: Hegseth Dismantled Civilian Harm Safeguards During Active War (May 2026)
A measles outbreak begins in West Texas, concentrated in communities with low vaccination rates. It will eventually become the epicenter of the worst US measles year in over three decades.
From: HHS Dismantlement Under RFK Jr. During the Worst Measles Outbreak in 30 Years
President Trump fires the Senate-confirmed director of the CFPB, Rohit Chopra, clearing the way for an acting director aligned with dismantlement goals.
From: DOGE Shuts Down Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 'CFPB RIP'
DOGE-driven layoffs eliminated over 3,500 FDA employees in 2025, gutting food safety oversight. Foreign facility inspections fell by nearly half, outbreak investigation resolution rates plummeted, and the agency suspended its quality control program for food testing labs — leaving the American food supply with the weakest federal oversight in modern history.
At least 10,588 people were placed in solitary confinement in immigration detention centers in a 14-month span (April 2024 to May 2025, about ten months of which fell under the Biden administration); in the first four months of the second Trump administration the monthly increase in use was twice the 2018–2023 rate and more than six times the rate at the end of the Biden administration. PHR reports that from 2018 to 2023 nearly three in four placements lasted 15 days or longer, the duration beyond which the UN Special Rapporteur on torture considers solitary confinement prohibited and capable of amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Vulnerable populations including those with mental illness were confined for an average of 38 days, while DHS oversight offices were gutted from 150 staff to 22.
Federal judges in Maryland and Massachusetts also issued preliminary injunctions blocking the order.
From: Executive Order Attempting to Restrict Fourteenth Amendment Birthright Citizenship
Across federal agencies, employees in DEI-related roles — and many who had previously held such roles but moved to other positions — are placed on administrative leave pending termination. The Department of Education places at least 100 employees on leave, only two of whom actually worked in DEI.
From: DOGE-Directed Elimination of Federal DEI Programs and Mass Firings of DEI Workers
Trump appointee Ed Martin, a former Missouri party chair who promoted election fraud claims, is appointed to lead a DOJ 'Weaponization Working Group' tasked with scrutinizing officials who investigated Trump.
From: Weaponization of the Department of Justice: Retaliatory Investigations and Prosecutions
Trump directed the Pentagon to prepare military plans to 'take back' the Panama Canal, with US Southern Command drawing up options ranging from closer cooperation to outright invasion.
From: Military and Economic Threats Against Greenland and Panama Canal Sovereignty
The State Department issues a partial waiver for 'life-saving' programs, but implementers report confusion about which activities qualify, inability to restart supply chains on short notice, and clinics that have already closed unable to reopen quickly. Staff paid from PEPFAR funds remain unpaid.
From: PEPFAR Freeze: HIV/AIDS Treatment Cut for 20 Million People Across Africa
The DoD is directed to cease funding travel for service members seeking abortion care, affecting personnel stationed in states with abortion bans.
From: Restrictions on Reproductive Rights and Comstock Act Revival
Immigration legal organizations begin documenting cases of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents detained by ICE during enforcement operations. Some are held for days before status is confirmed.
From: Second-Term Mass Deportations: Largest Enforcement Operation in U.S. History
Agencies begin mass termination of probationary employees — those with fewer civil service protections — across the federal government. Courts issue injunctions in multiple circuits. Administration continues terminations while challenging rulings.
From: Schedule F and Federal Worker Purge: Dismantling Civil Service Protections
The Trump administration negotiated a secret agreement with El Salvador's President Bukele to detain US deportees at the CECOT mega-prison (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo) for $6 million. The deal, finalized during Secretary Rubio's February 2025 visit, created an unprecedented arrangement to outsource US punishment to a foreign facility where HRW documented systematic torture. Over 280 people were transferred under a written agreement that has never been publicly released, with civil society calling for urgent UN action.
The ACLU, Texas Civil Rights Project, and National Immigrant Justice Center filed suit challenging the asylum ban on behalf of RAICES, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, and Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.
USAID career employees are locked out of their offices. The USAID website is taken offline. Foreign assistance contracts totaling billions of dollars are terminated. DOGE announces USAID functions will be merged into State Department.
From: DOGE: Musk-Led Dismantlement of Federal Agencies Without Congressional Authorization
On January 25, 2025, President Trump said he wanted Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from Gaza so as to 'just clean out' the territory, and on February 4, 2025, he said the US would 'take over' Gaza and redevelop it as 'the Riviera of the Middle East.' The UN Secretary-General, Arab League, Palestinian Authority, and international law experts called the proposal ethnic cleansing. Egypt, Jordan, and all Arab states categorically rejected it.
The first flight transferring immigrants from the US mainland to Guantanamo Bay detention arrives. Military tents are erected for housing.
From: Guantanamo Bay Immigrant Detention: Solitary Confinement and Ill-Treatment
HRW published a comprehensive report demanding the US suspend arms transfers to end complicity in Israeli abuses, citing violations of US and international law.
From: US Arms Transfers to Israel During ICJ Genocide Proceedings
The Trump administration deported Haitian nationals to a country where 90% of Port-au-Prince is under gang control, 1.4 million people are internally displaced, and the US State Department maintains a Level 4 'Do Not Travel' advisory. The FAA banned US airlines from landing at Port-au-Prince airport after three US commercial aircraft were hit by gang gunfire in November 2024. DHS terminated both Haiti's TPS (about 348,000 people) and CHNV parole; in June 2026 the Supreme Court held in Mullin v. Doe that courts cannot hear non-constitutional challenges to the TPS termination, allowing it to proceed.
The Trump administration terminated or initiated termination of Temporary Protected Status for nationals of 11 countries -- Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Nepal, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Syria, Somalia, Myanmar, and Ethiopia -- stripping legal status from over 1 million TPS holders. Combined with CHNV parole terminations, 1.6 million people lost their legal right to stay in the United States in 2025, the largest mass de-documentation in US history.
The administration terminated TPS protections for approximately 350,000 Venezuelan nationals under the 2023 designation, stripping legal status and work authorization despite ongoing instability in Venezuela. The Supreme Court allowed the termination to take effect in October 2025.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres issues a stark statement: 'No forcible displacement of Palestinian people. That is ethnic cleansing.' He calls the proposal a violation of international humanitarian law.
From: Trump Proposes Forcible Displacement of 2.3 Million Palestinians from Gaza
The Arab League issues a formal statement rejecting any plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza. Egypt's President el-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah separately communicate direct rejections to the Trump administration. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and other Gulf states also reject the plan.
From: Trump Proposes Forcible Displacement of 2.3 Million Palestinians from Gaza
Secretary of State Marco Rubio visits El Salvador and meets with Bukele to discuss the offer. A verbal agreement is reached during this visit, which is later formalized in a written agreement.
From: Secret $6 Million Contract to Outsource Detention to El Salvador's CECOT
AFGE, AFSCME, and NAGE sue OPM claiming the deferred resignation offer violates federal law. Judge George O'Toole Jr. temporarily pauses the deadline. On February 12, he rules unions lack standing; OPM closes enrollment within hours. Approximately 75,000 federal employees have accepted.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
DOGE gains access to Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services financial systems, as well as Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration systems containing classified nuclear weapons information.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
Attorney General Pamela Bondi lifts the moratorium on federal executions and directs US Attorneys to pursue capital sentences in the categories specified by the executive order.
From: Federal Death Penalty Expansion and Discriminatory Application
Under growing legal pressure, the Treasury Department agrees to restrict DOGE staffers to 'read-only' access to payment systems. The agreement permits Krause and Elez to access records 'as needed' but without write privileges. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly signs off on the arrangement.
From: DOGE Associates Gained Access to $6 Trillion Treasury Payment System
Trump signed the executive order authorizing sanctions against ICC officials and those who cooperate with ICC investigations of U.S. or allied nationals.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt states it will be up to Musk himself to decide when to recuse from matters involving his financial interests. No ethics forms have been filed.
From: CFPB Dismantlement While Musk Launches Competing XMoney Payment Service
The Trump administration issued an ultimatum demanding the ICC amend its founding Rome Statute to exempt citizens of non-signatory states — effectively granting blanket immunity to Americans and Israelis from war crimes prosecution. The administration sanctioned nine ICC judges and prosecutors, threatened to designate the court in its entirety, and demanded the ICC drop investigations into US troops in Afghanistan and Israeli officials over Gaza.
President Trump signed Executive Order 14203 authorizing sanctions against International Criminal Court officials, eventually targeting 11 individuals including judges and prosecutors. UN experts and the ICC describe the sanctions as an attack on judicial independence; retaliation against Court officials mirrors the offences against the administration of justice in Article 70 of the Rome Statute. The sanctions have been condemned by the UN, international legal organizations, and the ICC itself.
The Palestinian Authority condemns the proposal as a 'catastrophe' and a violation of Palestinian rights. PA President Abbas states Palestinians will never abandon their land.
From: Trump Proposes Forcible Displacement of 2.3 Million Palestinians from Gaza
DOGE feeds Department of Education data into an AI tool to generate recommendations for budget cuts and program eliminations, raising concerns about automated decision-making affecting federal education programs.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
Marko Elez resigns from his government position after the Wall Street Journal discovers a series of racist social media posts he made before joining DOGE. He had been given access to one of the most sensitive financial databases in the federal government after just weeks on the job, with inadequate vetting.
From: DOGE Associates Gained Access to $6 Trillion Treasury Payment System
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt states it is up to Musk to determine when a conflict of interest exists and recuse himself.
From: Musk's $38 Billion Government Contract Empire Untouched While Leading DOGE Cuts
The Trump administration created 'Mission South Africa,' a refugee program exclusively for white Afrikaners based on debunked claims of 'white genocide,' while setting the lowest refugee ceiling in US history at 7,500. From October 2025 through January 2026, 1,648 of the 1,651 refugees admitted to the US were from South Africa. The program shut down refugee admissions for all other populations worldwide.
Sanctions imposed on ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, who had been investigating potential crimes in the Palestinian territories.
From: Executive Order Sanctioning International Criminal Court Officials
Trump reiterates the proposal in additional statements, framing forced displacement as an 'opportunity' for Palestinians. He claims he is 'speaking with love,' despite widespread condemnation.
From: Trump Proposes Forcible Displacement of 2.3 Million Palestinians from Gaza
DOGE gains access to FEMA's database of disaster victims, which contains personal information of Americans who applied for federal disaster assistance including addresses, financial details, and family information.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
Trump signs Executive Order 14204 on South Africa, directing the State Department and DHS to prioritise refugee admission for Afrikaners. The general refugee suspension imposed by Executive Order 14163 on January 20 remains in place.
From: CBP One App Shutdown: 30,000 Asylum Appointments Cancelled, 270,000 Stranded
Trump dismisses the head of the Office of Special Counsel, which protects whistleblowers. A district court orders him reinstated on February 10, but the order is vacated and his removal takes effect on March 5, 2025.
From: Dismantlement of Whistleblower Protections and Government Oversight Infrastructure
Elon Musk's DOGE shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the very agency that would regulate his planned XMoney payment platform — while DOGE operatives accessed confidential CFPB data about competitors. Public Citizen, senators, and ethics experts alleged potential criminal conflict-of-interest violations.
Elon Musk's DOGE shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on February 8, 2025. Acting Director Russell Vought ordered all 1,700 employees to stop work. DOGE deleted the agency's social media accounts. Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered the dismantlement halted and workers reinstated. A D.C. Circuit panel partially stayed and later vacated her injunction, but the full court reheard the case en banc and in June 2026 remanded it to her while retaining jurisdiction.
US District Judge Paul Engelmayer issues a preliminary injunction blocking DOGE from accessing Treasury Department records, after 19 Democratic attorneys general sued. New York Attorney General Letitia James leads the case.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
US District Judge Paul Engelmayer issues a temporary restraining order blocking DOGE from accessing Treasury Department payment systems, citing a risk of 'irreparable harm.' The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by 19 state attorneys general led by New York AG Letitia James.
From: DOGE Associates Gained Access to $6 Trillion Treasury Payment System
CFPB employees are informed that the Washington, DC headquarters will be closed for the week. The National Treasury Employees Union sues Acting Director Vought for shuttering the agency.
From: DOGE Shuts Down Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 'CFPB RIP'
Department of Homeland Security Secretary confirms that DOGE has been granted access to DHS data systems, expanding the scope of agencies where DOGE associates can view sensitive government records.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
DOGE terminated 89 Education Department contracts totaling $881 million, gutting the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) — the nation's primary education research body. The Department then cut nearly 50% of its 4,100-person workforce, and President Trump signed an executive order to close the agency entirely.
Acting Director Vought orders the CFPB to stop all investigations, including pending ones, and suspend all new rules from taking effect. All enforcement activity ceases.
From: DOGE Shuts Down Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 'CFPB RIP'
Legal scholars at Chatham House, Just Security, and other institutions publish analyses concluding that the proposal, if executed, would constitute a crime against humanity under Rome Statute Article 7(1)(d) and a violation of Geneva Convention IV Article 49.
From: Trump Proposes Forcible Displacement of 2.3 Million Palestinians from Gaza
Department of Housing and Urban Development employees receive emails demanding they compile and submit lists of all DEI-related contracts, as DOGE operatives seek to identify and eliminate diversity-related spending across the agency.
From: DOGE-Directed Elimination of Federal DEI Programs and Mass Firings of DEI Workers
IRAP, HIAS, Church World Service, and individual refugees filed suit challenging the suspension of USRAP and the freeze on refugee-related funding.
From: Indefinite Suspension of US Refugee Admissions Program and Record-Low Resettlement Cap
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforcement actions are halted by DOGE direction. The acting director (appointed by DOGE) orders staff to stand down. Courts issue injunctions challenged by the administration.
From: DOGE: Musk-Led Dismantlement of Federal Agencies Without Congressional Authorization
Trump removes the director of the Office of Government Ethics, which oversees ethics compliance across the executive branch.
From: Dismantlement of Whistleblower Protections and Government Oversight Infrastructure
Over 100 IES employees are terminated, including research analysts specializing in K-12 studies and adult education. Chalkbeat and NPR report that the cuts eliminate the department's capacity to track national school performance, safety data, and science course completion.
From: Education Department Dismantlement: $881M in Contracts Slashed, IES Eliminated, 50% Workforce Cut
Trump signs an executive order titled 'Implementing the President's DOGE Workforce Optimization Initiative,' directing agencies to significantly reduce the federal workforce and implement new hiring practices aligned with DOGE recommendations.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
Trump signs the DOGE Workforce Optimization executive order, which incorporates the DEI elimination into a broader federal workforce reduction. The military begins compiling lists of officers accused of supporting diversity for subsequent purging.
From: DOGE-Directed Elimination of Federal DEI Programs and Mass Firings of DEI Workers
The Treasury Department admits in court filings that Marko Elez was mistakenly given read-write access to the payment database — not merely read-only access as previously claimed. The write privileges would have allowed altering payment records in the system that disburses trillions annually.
From: DOGE Associates Gained Access to $6 Trillion Treasury Payment System
The White House indefinitely bars Associated Press reporters from press pool events, including in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One, citing its refusal to adopt 'Gulf of America.' Press freedom organizations condemn the action as content-based discrimination.
From: Second-Term Press Attacks: AP Barred From Press Pool, Pool Access Restricted
The White House requests that the U.S. Marshals Service deputize members of Elon Musk's private security team as federal agents.
From: Musk's Private Bodyguards Deputized as Federal Agents Without Required Training
Public Citizen asks the Office of Government Ethics to bar Musk from CFPB matters. NPR reports that CFPB had been actively developing regulations for digital payment platforms like the one Musk planned to launch. Senators Warren and Schiff demand investigations.
From: CFPB Dismantlement While Musk Launches Competing XMoney Payment Service
Immigrants' rights advocates file federal lawsuit for access to immigrants transferred to Guantanamo Bay, citing complete lack of legal counsel and family contact.
From: Guantanamo Bay Immigrant Detention: Solitary Confinement and Ill-Treatment
DOGE operatives take over VIP offices at the Department of Education. Separately, more than 300 EPA employees are terminated as part of DOGE-directed workforce reductions at the agency.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
Former inspectors general sought reinstatement and challenged the legality of the removals.
From: Mass Firing of Inspectors General Across Federal Government
On February 13, 2025, DOGE fired approximately 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration, including workers at the Pantex Plant in Texas who assemble nuclear warheads — one of the most sensitive national security jobs in the federal government. After bipartisan outcry over the threat to nuclear stockpile safety, all but 28 firings were rescinded the next day.
Approximately 350 workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration responsible for maintaining the US nuclear weapons stockpile are fired. Most firings are rescinded the following day after officials realize the critical nature of the positions.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
While DOGE slashes contracts across the federal government, SpaceX receives approximately $5.9 billion in National Security Space Launch contracts from the Department of Defense. No Musk company contracts are among those terminated.
From: Musk's $38 Billion Government Contract Empire Untouched While Leading DOGE Cuts
As news breaks that DOGE has fired nuclear warhead assemblers with top security clearances, bipartisan alarm erupts. NPR, CBS, and other outlets report the firings. By late Friday night, acting NNSA director Teresa Robbins issues a memo rescinding the firings for all but 28 employees.
From: DOGE Fires 350 Nuclear Weapons Workers at NNSA, Including Pantex Warhead Assemblers
A federal judge issues an order blocking the CFPB from laying off more employees while legal challenges proceed.
From: DOGE Shuts Down Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 'CFPB RIP'
OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell's February 13 directive takes effect. Agencies fire approximately 30,000 probationary employees across DOE, VA, Interior, USFS, CDC, Education, and other departments. Many are falsely characterized as fired for 'performance' reasons despite positive reviews. Workers call it the 'Valentine's Day Massacre.'
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
The DEI-targeted firings escalate alongside the broader 'Valentine's Day Massacre' of probationary employees. DOGE uses the cover of general workforce reduction to accelerate elimination of DEI-related positions and personnel.
From: DOGE-Directed Elimination of Federal DEI Programs and Mass Firings of DEI Workers
The City and County of San Francisco, County of Santa Clara, and a coalition of cities and counties file suit challenging the administration's attempts to cut or condition federal funding to sanctuary jurisdictions.
From: Punishing Sanctuary Jurisdictions: Federal Funding Cutoffs and Threats Against Entire States
Members of Elon Musk's private security team were deputized as U.S. Marshals while he led DOGE, despite lacking basic law enforcement training and the minimum one year of experience. The U.S. Marshals Service waived its own training requirements at the White House's request, allowing untrained armed civilians to carry weapons in federal buildings and operate alongside government personnel.
Reports emerge that the Trump administration is privately pressuring Egypt and Jordan to accept Palestinian displaced persons, with discussions reportedly linking US military aid packages to compliance. Both countries publicly refuse.
From: Trump Proposes Forcible Displacement of 2.3 Million Palestinians from Gaza
An internal DOGE report surfaces outlining a detailed three-phase strategy for systematically eliminating all DEI infrastructure across the federal government: Phase 1 dissolves offices, Phase 2 compiles termination lists and places staff on leave, Phase 3 executes firings and eliminates all grants and contracts.
From: DOGE-Directed Elimination of Federal DEI Programs and Mass Firings of DEI Workers
Bipartisan congressional pressure builds to restore PEPFAR. Republican senators who had supported PEPFAR since its Bush-era origins raise concerns about the freeze. The administration's public position remains that the program is under 'review.'
From: PEPFAR Freeze: HIV/AIDS Treatment Cut for 20 Million People Across Africa
Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and associated international broadcasting services are shut down or suspended. Employees are locked out. U.S. public diplomacy broadcasting in more than 100 countries ceases or is severely curtailed.
From: DOGE: Musk-Led Dismantlement of Federal Agencies Without Congressional Authorization
Reports emerge of operational disruptions at the IRS during tax season, Social Security Administration claim processing delays, and VA staffing shortfalls. Agency inspectors general begin documenting workforce impacts.
From: Schedule F and Federal Worker Purge: Dismantling Civil Service Protections
DOGE seeks access to Internal Revenue Service taxpayer data, which would give Musk's team visibility into the tax returns and financial information of individual Americans and businesses.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
AG Bondi issues additional memoranda directing US Attorneys to pursue the harshest sentences possible across all federal cases, extending the punitive framework beyond the death penalty order.
From: Federal Death Penalty Expansion and Discriminatory Application
The Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration departs the agency over disputes with DOGE regarding access to SSA systems and data. A replacement more amenable to DOGE's demands is installed.
From: DOGE Employees Matched Social Security Data with Voter Rolls to Pursue Voter Fraud Claims
The administration attempts to bring back fired nuclear workers. Media reports highlight the chaos: workers who had already turned in badges and had security access revoked must go through reprocessing. The Arms Control Association warns that DOGE operatives had 'absolutely no knowledge of what these departments are responsible for.'
From: DOGE Fires 350 Nuclear Weapons Workers at NNSA, Including Pantex Warhead Assemblers
Senator Ed Markey writes to Energy Secretary Chris Wright demanding an accounting of the firings and their impact on nuclear stockpile safety, nuclear weapons program timelines, and environmental cleanup operations.
From: DOGE Fires 350 Nuclear Weapons Workers at NNSA, Including Pantex Warhead Assemblers
The Trump administration has invoked emergency authority to push through $16.5 billion to more than $23 billion (reported totals differ) in arms sales to Gulf states including the UAE, Kuwait, and Jordan, bypassing the mandatory congressional review process. The UAE has been documented arming the RSF in Sudan; no diversion of US-origin weapons to the RSF is documented in the sources cited. The administration also rescinded NSM-20, an executive human rights assurance policy for arms transfers.
The Department of Defense announces plans to cut approximately 5,400 probationary workers beginning the following week, extending the mass firings to the military's civilian workforce.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
The State Department implements the executive order by refusing to issue or renew passports with gender markers that differ from the applicant's sex assigned at birth, leaving transgender and nonbinary Americans unable to obtain accurate travel documents.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Transgender Rights and Gender Identity Recognition
Judge Jeannette Vargas (S.D.N.Y.) keeps the restraining order in place, finding the states likely to show that Treasury's process for granting the DOGE team access was arbitrary and capricious and that 'the launch of the Treasury DOGE Team was chaotic and haphazard.' She declines the broader relief the states sought.
From: DOGE Associates Gained Access to $6 Trillion Treasury Payment System
The AP sues White House officials, arguing the exclusion violates the First Amendment by conditioning access on editorial compliance.
From: Second-Term Press Attacks: AP Barred From Press Pool, Pool Access Restricted
The administration revoked National Security Memorandum 20, which had required credible and reliable written assurances that recipients would use US weapons in line with international law (Arms Control Association).
From: US Arms Transfers to Israel During ICJ Genocide Proceedings
DOGE gains access to National Institutes of Health finance and grants management systems, giving the team visibility into biomedical research funding decisions and researcher financial information.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
The Washington Post reports on the intersection of Trump's presidential role and business empire during Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit, detailing how foreign affairs and Trump's personal fortune are becoming inseparable.
From: Trump Emoluments: Foreign Government Payments Through Business Deals, Gifts, and Cryptocurrency
Chalkbeat reports that DOGE education cuts directly impact students with disabilities and literacy research programs, eliminating contracts that supported evidence-based reading instruction and special education services.
From: Education Department Dismantlement: $881M in Contracts Slashed, IES Eliminated, 50% Workforce Cut
DOGE accesses Department of Housing and Urban Development data systems containing housing discrimination complaint records and personal information of individuals who filed fair housing complaints.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
The Washington Post publishes an interactive investigation detailing at least $38 billion in government funding that has flowed to Musk's business empire, including contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits.
From: Musk's $38 Billion Government Contract Empire Untouched While Leading DOGE Cuts
DOGE-era cuts cost the National Weather Service roughly 550 to 600 staff through probationary firings and early retirements, leaving 30 of 122 forecast offices without a lead meteorologist. The Goodland, Kansas office became the first to stop 24/7 operations. Five former NWS directors warned the cuts 'may endanger lives.' The gutting came just before the busiest severe weather season.
The Social Security Administration announces a goal of cutting 7,000 employees as part of DOGE-directed workforce reductions, threatening the agency's ability to process benefits for the tens of millions of Americans who depend on Social Security.
From: DOGE Employees Matched Social Security Data with Voter Rolls to Pursue Voter Fraud Claims
The Trump administration systematically dismantled the Pentagon's Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response program, including the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, leaving U.S. forces without institutional safeguards against civilian casualties months before launching wars in the Caribbean, Venezuela, and Iran.
CNBC and NBC report that DOGE and CFPB leadership plan to fire nearly all 1,700 employees in three phases and wind down the agency entirely, despite the CFPB being a Congressionally-created agency.
From: CFPB Dismantlement While Musk Launches Competing XMoney Payment Service
CNBC reports that DOGE and CFPB leadership have planned to fire nearly all 1,700 employees in three phases and wind down the agency entirely.
From: DOGE Shuts Down Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 'CFPB RIP'
The Trump administration approved an arms sale to Israel of nearly $3 billion that included 35,500 MK-84 and BLU-117 bombs (AP).
From: US Arms Transfers to Israel During ICJ Genocide Proceedings
ICE resumes detaining families at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, operated by CoreCivic, in March 2025. It becomes the nation's only family detention center.
Upon returning to office, the Trump administration rescinds Biden's 2023 arms transfer policy and reinstates the 2018 Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, which placed less emphasis on human rights considerations.
From: America First Arms Transfer Strategy: Human Rights Safeguards Removed From Weapons Exports
ICE agents began systematically arresting immigrants at their own mandatory immigration court hearings, creating a 'deportation trap' where government attorneys would dismiss cases -- normally a favorable outcome -- as a trigger for immediate arrest. Immigration judges closed and denied more asylum cases in March 2025 than any month on record, with a 76% denial rate. In absentia removal orders nearly tripled, topping 50,000 in FY 2025, as word spread that attending court meant arrest.
The South African government calls Trump's claims that Afrikaners face persecution 'completely false,' noting they remain among the richest and most economically privileged groups in the country.
From: White Afrikaner Refugee Program: 1,648 of 1,651 US Refugees Are White South Africans
Amnesty International publishes analysis concluding the sanctions threaten the entire system of international criminal justice. Multiple legal organizations document the chilling effect on cooperation with the court.
An emergency Arab League summit in Cairo produces a unified declaration rejecting any plan to displace Palestinians and affirming the Palestinian right to remain on their land and the right of return.
From: Trump Proposes Forcible Displacement of 2.3 Million Palestinians from Gaza
Although the administration vowed that food safety inspectors would be spared, it begins cutting critical investigative support staff in March. Investigators are quickly overwhelmed as support responsibilities shift to them.
From: FDA Food Safety Collapse: 3,500+ Staff Cut and Outbreak Investigation Capacity Gutted
ACLU, CCR, IRAP, and ACLU-DC file Gutierrez v. Noem challenging the transfer policy as violating the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Fifth Amendment.
From: Guantanamo Bay Immigrant Detention: Solitary Confinement and Ill-Treatment
The General Services Administration eliminates 18F, the federal government's in-house digital services consultancy, laying off approximately 100 staff members who built and maintained critical government technology systems.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
Judge Lauren King blocked provisions cutting federal funding for programs that 'promote gender ideology' and withholding funding from healthcare providers offering gender-affirming care to minors.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Transgender Rights and Gender Identity Recognition
The administration reopened the Karnes and Dilley family detention centers in Texas, expanding capacity for detaining families together.
From: Family Separations and Prolonged Child Detention Under Immigration Enforcement
President Trump hosts Tesla vehicles on the White House South Lawn, with Commerce Secretary Lutnick also promoting the company, raising further concerns about the entanglement of government and Musk's commercial interests.
From: Musk's $38 Billion Government Contract Empire Untouched While Leading DOGE Cuts
Health organizations in Uganda and South Africa begin documenting deaths of HIV-positive patients who lost access to antiretroviral therapy during the freeze. These represent the first of what health experts say will be a much larger toll.
From: PEPFAR Freeze: HIV/AIDS Treatment Cut for 20 Million People Across Africa
The White House press pool is reorganized to include more partisan pro-Trump media outlets while traditional credentialed organizations face access restrictions. Reporters from adversarial outlets report difficulty obtaining briefing questions and access.
From: Second-Term Press Attacks: AP Barred From Press Pool, Pool Access Restricted
The Washington Post publishes a comprehensive investigation into how DOGE's mass firings 'detonated a crisis at a nuclear weapons agency,' detailing the confusion, security implications, and ongoing damage to institutional knowledge.
From: DOGE Fires 350 Nuclear Weapons Workers at NNSA, Including Pantex Warhead Assemblers
Linda McMahon is confirmed as Secretary of Education by a 51-45 Senate vote. She states at her confirmation hearing that she looks forward to working herself out of a job. She has no education policy background but has donated approximately $6 million to Trump's political causes.
From: Department of Education: Near-Abolition and Mass Staff Terminations
A DOGE team member sends an encrypted file with names and addresses of approximately 1,000 people to the Department of Homeland Security, copying DOGE adviser Steve Davis and a DOGE Department of Labor employee.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
On March 4, 2025, the State Department redesignated Yemen's Houthi movement (Ansarallah) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), reversing Biden's 2021 revocation. The designation carries criminal penalties for material support, chilling humanitarian operations in Houthi-controlled areas where 19.5 million Yemenis — more than half the population — need humanitarian assistance. Biden had revoked the designation specifically because of its devastating humanitarian impact.
Trump's 25% tariffs on Canadian goods take effect, with goods compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement soon exempted. The tariffs trigger a trade crisis with the U.S.'s largest trading partner and closest ally. Canadian officials describe the relationship as fundamentally altered. U.S.-Canada trade disruptions affect auto, agricultural, and energy sectors.
From: Annexation Threats: Greenland, Panama Canal, Canada — Territorial Expansionism
An immigration court rules that 10 immigrants who are plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit will not be transferred to Guantanamo Bay pending litigation.
From: Guantanamo Bay Immigrant Detention: Solitary Confinement and Ill-Treatment
President Trump issued executive orders targeting four law firms — Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and Susman Godfrey — that had represented clients adverse to Trump, revoking security clearances, barring access to federal buildings, and directing contract cancellations. All four orders were struck down as unconstitutional by federal judges. At least nine additional firms cut deals with the administration to avoid being targeted, agreeing to provide hundreds of millions in pro bono work on administration-favored causes. The compliance deals remain in effect and the chilling effect on legal representation of Trump opponents continues.
Axios reports the State Department is using AI tools to screen social media accounts of foreign students for 'pro-Hamas' content to identify candidates for visa revocation.
From: Mass Student Visa Revocations Targeting Pro-Palestine Protesters
US District Judge Beryl Howell rules that Wilcox was 'illegally' fired, but the ruling is stayed on appeal.
The Trump administration froze or canceled billions in university funding to coerce political compliance, including $400 million canceled from Columbia (which paid a $221 million settlement), $2.2 billion frozen from Harvard (which refused to comply and won a court order), $250+ million in NIH grants terminated at Columbia's medical center, and investigations opened against 60 universities. The administration demanded Columbia suspend protesters, change admissions, place departments under 'academic receivership,' and ban protest masks — all within one week. NIH funding was cut 24% overall, and the administration proposed a 44% budget reduction.
DOGE employees at the Social Security Administration secretly consulted with a political advocacy group about using Americans' Social Security data to cross-reference state voter rolls in pursuit of voter fraud allegations. One DOGE staffer signed a 'Voter Data Agreement' with the group in his capacity as an SSA employee. The employees were referred to a federal watchdog for potential Hatch Act violations, and SSA's inspector general opened an investigation in 2026.
CNBC reports that the scale of DOGE-directed layoffs threatens to overwhelm the unemployment insurance system designed for federal workers, which was never built to handle mass separations of this magnitude.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
Trump fires career DOJ attorney Liz Oyer, head of the Office of the Pardon Attorney, and installs political loyalist Ed Martin. The office had traditionally served as a nonpartisan filter evaluating clemency petitions on their merits.
ICE agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident and Columbia University graduate student, in the lobby of his Columbia-owned apartment building over his role as a lead negotiator in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. An immigration judge found him deportable based on Secretary Rubio's assertion that his 'continued presence posed adverse foreign policy consequences' -- a rarely used ground that a federal court later found was applied under an unconstitutional policy of deporting noncitizens for pro-Palestinian speech.
The Trump administration detained and sought to deport multiple noncitizen campus activists and scholars for pro-Palestinian speech, revoking an estimated 300 student visas. Key cases include Mahmoud Khalil, Badar Khan Suri, Rumeysa Ozturk, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Mohammed Hoque — all arrested based on their protest involvement or writings, with internal DHS documents confirming 'no alternative grounds for removability' existed.
ICE agents arrest Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil — a lawful permanent resident married to a US citizen — in the lobby of his Columbia-owned apartment building over his role in Gaza solidarity protests.
From: Mass Student Visa Revocations Targeting Pro-Palestine Protesters
National coverage of the arrest drew widespread attention to the use of immigration enforcement against political protesters, particularly pro-Palestine activists.
From: Deportation Proceedings Against Mahmoud Khalil for Pro-Palestine Protest Activity
The administration overhauls the CBP One app, which was formerly used to process asylum claims at the southern border, reimagining it as a platform for 'self-deportation' — allowing migrants to schedule their own removal rather than asylum hearings.
The Education Department announces a reduction in force laying off 1,315 employees, which together with buyouts roughly halves its staff. The cuts affect loan processing, civil rights enforcement, special education oversight, and Title I distribution.
From: Department of Education: Near-Abolition and Mass Staff Terminations
The NIH terminates over $250 million in funding to Columbia, including 400+ grants at the medical center.
From: Coercion of Universities: Funding Freezes, Research Cuts, and Demands for Political Compliance
Perkins Coie files a legal challenge to the executive order, arguing it violates the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Law Firms Representing Trump's Opponents
CNN and Inside Higher Ed report the Education Department will reduce its staff by nearly half — approximately 1,700 of 4,100+ employees. Cuts include civil rights enforcement staff, student loan servicers, and special education oversight personnel.
From: Education Department Dismantlement: $881M in Contracts Slashed, IES Eliminated, 50% Workforce Cut
The Department of Education loses approximately 50% of its workforce through DOGE-directed firings and forced resignations. Separately, the US Postal Service agrees to cut 10,000 jobs as part of the broader workforce reduction campaign.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announces 31 regulatory actions for rollback, including power plant emission limits, methane regulations, vehicle emissions standards, mercury controls, and the greenhouse gas reporting program.
Legal analysis details the scope of the rescission, noting that the original sensitive locations policy had been in place since 2011 under the Obama administration and was expanded by Biden in 2021 to cover additional locations including playgrounds, bus stops, and homeless shelters.
From: Rescission of ICE Sensitive Locations Policy — Churches, Schools, and Hospitals Open to Raids
The administration demands Columbia suspend protesters, change admissions, ban protest masks, adopt a government-specified antisemitism definition, and place a department under 'academic receivership' — all within seven days.
From: Coercion of Universities: Funding Freezes, Research Cuts, and Demands for Political Compliance
US District Judge William Alsup orders six federal agencies to reinstate thousands of probationary employees, calling OPM's directive illegal and the firing process a 'sham.' He notes that probationary workers were falsely told they were fired for performance reasons.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
The Trump administration revoked a key executive order expanding tribal sovereignty, terminated $1.5 billion in tribal clean energy funding affecting nearly 1,600 projects, and ICE agents entered tribal lands and questioned Navajo citizens' citizenship despite Certificates of Indian Blood — prompting formal complaints from the Navajo Nation to DHS.
The Trump administration attempted to dismantle the United States Agency for Global Media, placing approximately 1,300 VOA journalists on leave, terminating RFE/RL's grant agreement, and firing hundreds of staff — before a federal judge ruled that Kari Lake had illegally served as Acting CEO and voided the layoffs.
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and Georgetown University scholar whose research focuses on peacebuilding in the Middle East, is arrested at his Virginia home after his J-1 visa is revoked. He is detained by ICE.
From: Political Prisoners: Detention of Campus Activists for Pro-Palestinian Speech
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies published an analysis advocating for 'evolving' the CHMR program to support 'precision lethality.'
From: Dismantlement of Pentagon Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Program
President Trump rescinds NSM-18, the conventional arms transfer policy. The revocation leaves the United States without a CAT policy for the first time since 1977, eliminating the framework governing how the world's largest arms exporter evaluates sales.
Judge William Alsup's reinstatement order takes effect, requiring six federal agencies to bring back thousands of fired probationary workers. The order represents the most significant judicial pushback against DOGE's workforce reduction campaign.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
The US launches Operation Rough Rider, a large-scale air campaign against Houthi forces in Yemen, targeting radar systems, air defenses, and ballistic and drone launch sites. It is the first major US military operation in the Middle East under Trump's second term.
From: US Airstrike Kills 61 to 68 African Migrants in Yemen Detention Center
The United States launches a sustained bombing campaign against Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, marking the beginning of Operation Rough Rider.
From: US Strikes on Ras Issa Fuel Port Kill 84+ Civilians in Yemen
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz creates a Signal group titled 'Houthi PC small group' for coordinating policy discussion of upcoming strikes on Houthi targets. The group includes VP Vance, Defense Secretary Hegseth, CIA Director Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Rubio, and other senior officials.
From: Signalgate: Top Officials Share Classified Strike Plans in Unsecured Group Chat
Through what appears to be a contact confusion, Waltz adds Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to the group. None of the officials notice. Goldberg observes the conversation for days.
From: Signalgate: Top Officials Share Classified Strike Plans in Unsecured Group Chat
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shares specific operational information about the imminent Yemen strikes in the Signal chat, including targeting sequences, launch times, and weapon packages. This information was shared on a commercial, unclassified messaging application.
From: Signalgate: Top Officials Share Classified Strike Plans in Unsecured Group Chat
VP JD Vance writes in the chat that he wants to 'voice his reservations' about the strikes, citing concerns about timing and political strategy. His objections are dismissed by other participants and the strikes proceed as planned.
From: Signalgate: Top Officials Share Classified Strike Plans in Unsecured Group Chat
US military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen proceed as discussed in the Signal chat. Civilian harm in the wider campaign is documented separately (yemen-operation-rough-rider).
From: Signalgate: Top Officials Share Classified Strike Plans in Unsecured Group Chat
A Maryland man was removed to El Salvador despite a prior immigration order barring his deportation there. The Supreme Court later required the government to facilitate his return, making the case a flashpoint for due-process and non-refoulement concerns.
The Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act to speed removals of Venezuelan nationals accused of ties to Tren de Aragua. Courts quickly intervened, and the policy became a major test of wartime powers, due process, and third-country detention transfers.
The Trump administration has engaged in a sustained pattern of defying court orders, threatening judges, calling for impeachment of judges who rule against it, and hollowing out the Department of Justice, representing the most direct challenge to judicial authority by a president in modern American history.
The Trump administration secretly deported 252 Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison between March and April 2025. Human Rights Watch documented systematic torture including sexual violence in its November 2025 report 'You Have Arrived in Hell.' Deportees were held incommunicado without notice to families or attorneys.
Human Rights Watch documented that El Salvador is forcibly disappearing Salvadorans deported from the United States — detaining them immediately upon arrival, holding them incommunicado without access to lawyers or families, refusing to disclose their location, and denying their existence in the system. At least 11 documented cases of deportees held without contact for up to a year, with authorities claiming they have 'no record' of them.
On March 15, 2025, Homeland Security Investigations Supervisory Special Agent Jack Stevens shot and killed Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old US citizen from San Antonio, at a traffic-control point on South Padre Island, Texas, firing three rounds through the driver's window. ICE records said the driver 'intentionally ran over' an agent. The death was reported locally without identifying federal involvement until ICE records obtained by American Oversight surfaced in February 2026. Body-camera video released in March 2026 shows the car 'barely moving'. A grand jury declined to charge Stevens.
A documented pattern of wrongful deportations in which US citizens and individuals with court-ordered protections have been removed from the country, often in direct violation of federal court orders. Courts have ordered the return of at least four wrongfully deported individuals, but the administration has resisted compliance.
From March 15 to May 6, 2025, the US conducted Operation Rough Rider — a 53-day bombing campaign against Houthi-controlled Yemen involving 339+ strikes on 800+ targets. Airwars documented at least 224 civilian deaths across 33 civilian harm incidents, including strikes on a migrant detention center (61 to 68 killed) and the Ras Issa fuel port (84 killed). Houthi-run media reported a cancer hospital under construction in Saada was struck; this is unverified. In 52 days, the US killed nearly as many civilians in Yemen as in the previous 23 years of operations (258, per Airwars).
Approximately 1,300 journalists, producers, and support staff across USAGM outlets are placed on paid administrative leave. The letter is signed by Kari Lake, listed as 'senior advisor to the acting CEO with authorities delegated by Acting CEO.' RFE/RL's federal grant agreement is simultaneously terminated, with 30 days to appeal.
Khalil was transferred from New York to the LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana, far from his attorneys and support network.
From: Deportation Proceedings Against Mahmoud Khalil for Pro-Palestine Protest Activity
A DOGE engineer writes to SSA officials describing a 'critical' need to access DHS voter data through SSA systems, seeking to establish a pipeline between immigration enforcement data and Social Security records for the purpose of identifying alleged non-citizen voters.
From: DOGE Employees Matched Social Security Data with Voter Rolls to Pursue Voter Fraud Claims
The US launches a sustained bombing campaign against Houthi-controlled Yemen, compounding the humanitarian impact of the FTO designation with direct military strikes on infrastructure.
From: Houthi FTO Redesignation Chills Humanitarian Operations for 19.5 Million Yemenis
Military policy experts at War on the Rocks published a warning that dismantling CHMR would be 'a big mistake' with consequences for both civilian protection and US military credibility.
From: Dismantlement of Pentagon Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Program
Foreign food facility inspections fall by nearly half in March 2025 compared to previous years, hitting what ProPublica describes as a historic low. The cuts to support staff effectively incapacitate the foreign inspection program.
From: FDA Food Safety Collapse: 3,500+ Staff Cut and Outbreak Investigation Capacity Gutted
A federal district court issued an injunction ordering the resumption of refugee processing and admissions, under which over 100 refugees were admitted.
From: Indefinite Suspension of US Refugee Admissions Program and Record-Low Resettlement Cap
The first deportees are transferred to CECOT on March 15–16 under a March 14 agreement with El Salvador, many under the Alien Enemies Act. Kilmar Abrego Garcia — who has a 2019 U.S. court order withholding his removal — is among them. UN experts later say the transfers appear to involve enforced disappearance. A federal judge later (April 4) orders the administration to facilitate his return.
From: Second-Term Mass Deportations: Largest Enforcement Operation in U.S. History
Federal litigation quickly challenged both the legal theory behind the proclamation and the lack of individualized process.
From: Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to Accelerate Venezuelan Deportations
El Salvador's president announced receiving 261 deportees from the U.S. hours after the restraining order was issued.
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
Bukele announces on X the arrival of 'the first 238 members' of Tren de Aragua from the United States, stating they will be imprisoned at CECOT 'for a period of one year (renewable).'
From: Secret $6 Million Contract to Outsource Detention to El Salvador's CECOT
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirms 'approximately $6 million' has been paid to El Salvador 'for the detention of these foreign terrorists.'
From: Secret $6 Million Contract to Outsource Detention to El Salvador's CECOT
On Truth Social, Trump called Boasberg a 'Radical Left Lunatic' and called for his impeachment.
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
Roberts stated that 'for more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.'
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
Judge Ana Reyes preliminarily enjoins the ban in Talbott v. United States; a Washington district court issues a nationwide injunction in Shilling on March 27.
From: Second-Term Transgender Military Ban: Executive Order 14183
Judge Ana C. Reyes issues a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the transgender military ban, ruling it likely violates the constitutional rights of transgender service members.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Transgender Rights and Gender Identity Recognition
A deportation flight landed in Cap-Haitien with 46 passengers after the FAA banned flights to Port-au-Prince.
From: Deportations to Haiti Despite Gang Control and Humanitarian Collapse
The Trump administration withdrew ADA guidance documents dating to 1999, killed two pending ADA rulemakings, proposed eliminating the Section 503 utilization goal for federal contractor hiring of disabled workers, laid off nearly half the staff of the Administration for Community Living, proposed cutting the NIH budget by 44% and CDC by 43%, and issued an executive order promoting institutionalization of people with mental illness while calling for reversal of judicial protections against broad commitment.
In March 2025, the Trump administration began systematically dismantling the U.S. Department of Education — the agency responsible for administering $1.7 trillion in federal student loans, distributing Title I education funding to high-poverty schools, enforcing disability protections (IDEA), and administering civil rights enforcement in schools. The administration terminated approximately half the department's staff, announced plans to transfer functions to other agencies, and placed the department on a path toward closure — though actual abolition requires Congressional authorization the administration had not yet secured.
Human Rights Watch submitted an expert declaration in federal litigation describing conditions at CECOT, including overcrowding, lack of sanitation, and denial of legal access.
From: Secret Deportation of 252 Venezuelans to CECOT Mega-Prison
President Trump signs an executive order arguing that the Department of Education should be closed and authority over education returned to states and local communities. Legal experts note that actually closing the department requires an act of Congress.
From: Education Department Dismantlement: $881M in Contracts Slashed, IES Eliminated, 50% Workforce Cut
The 60-day deadline for agencies to complete termination of all DEI offices, positions, equity plans, grants, and contracts expires. Agencies report compliance to OMB. The scope of the purge extends to 'environmental justice' positions and programs.
From: DOGE-Directed Elimination of Federal DEI Programs and Mass Firings of DEI Workers
A White House memo directed DOJ to pursue sanctions against lawyers bringing 'unreasonable' suits against the government.
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
Court filings later reveal that the State Department signed a grant agreement on March 22, 2025 — a week after a federal judge ordered a halt to Alien Enemies Act deportations — providing El Salvador a $4.76 million grant to cover 'costs associated with the detention' of 238 migrants. The agreement barred any US funds from being used for legal counsel. Legal experts at Lawfare conclude the agreement violated the Constitution by circumventing congressional spending restrictions and the Impoundment Control Act.
From: Secret $6 Million Contract to Outsource Detention to El Salvador's CECOT
A broader executive order revokes clearances from Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, NY AG Letitia James, DA Alvin Bragg, impeachment witnesses Fiona Hill and Alexander Vindman, and others who opposed Trump.
From: Weaponization of Security Clearances for Political Retaliation
In March 2025, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz accidentally added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to a Signal group chat in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and other top officials were discussing operational details of imminent US military strikes in Yemen. Hegseth shared targeting sequences, attack timings, and weapon packages. The Atlantic published the chat contents. The incident exposed sensitive operational information on a commercial messaging app and revealed VP Vance's in-meeting opposition to the strikes.
VOA employees and multiple press freedom organizations file lawsuits against the Trump administration to save government-funded media outlets. The lawsuits challenge both the legality of the layoffs and Kari Lake's authority to order them.
A DOGE team member signs a 'Voter Data Agreement' in his capacity as an SSA employee with a political advocacy group — believed to be True the Vote — that had contacted DOGE employees with a request to analyze state voter rolls to find evidence of voter fraud and overturn election results.
From: DOGE Employees Matched Social Security Data with Voter Rolls to Pursue Voter Fraud Claims
Under Judge Vargas's February 21 order, Treasury must submit by this date a report certifying that DOGE associates have been properly trained to access payment systems and have been vetted and obtained proper security clearances. The deadline reflects ongoing concerns about the adequacy of safeguards.
From: DOGE Associates Gained Access to $6 Trillion Treasury Payment System
The Trump administration terminated the humanitarian parole programs for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV), stripping legal status and work authorization from approximately 532,000 people. The Supreme Court allowed the termination to proceed in a 7-2 decision on May 30, 2025, and DHS began issuing termination notices encouraging parolees to 'self-deport immediately.'
On March 25, 2025, Trump issued Executive Order 14248, 'Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,' which attempted to require passport-or-equivalent proof of citizenship to register to vote (blocking millions without passports), decertify all voting machines in 39 states within 180 days, mandate that only ballots received by Election Day be counted, and order the DOJ to sue states for voter roll data. Three federal courts found key provisions unconstitutional. The DOJ sued 29 states for refusing to hand over voter files.
The National Security Council acknowledges that the information shared in the Signal chat included sensitive operational information. The concession contradicts the previous day's denials.
From: Signalgate: Top Officials Share Classified Strike Plans in Unsecured Group Chat
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national and Tufts University PhD student, is detained outside her home by a swarm of officers. Video shows officers encircling her as she shrieks in fear. Her student visa was revoked over an op-ed she co-authored.
From: Political Prisoners: Detention of Campus Activists for Pro-Palestinian Speech
Mohammed Hoque, a Bangladeshi student at Minnesota State University, Mankato, pursuing a degree in management information systems, is arrested outside his home. His social media activity is cited as the basis for his detention.
From: Political Prisoners: Detention of Campus Activists for Pro-Palestinian Speech
Trump issues EO 14246 targeting Jenner & Block for its association with Andrew Weissmann. Judge Bates quickly issues a TRO.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Law Firms Representing Trump's Opponents
DHS terminated the CHNV parole program, stripping legal status from tens of thousands of Haitian parolees.
From: Deportations to Haiti Despite Gang Control and Humanitarian Collapse
Trevor Milton, convicted of defrauding investors in electric truck company Nikola, is pardoned. Milton had donated nearly $2 million to pro-Trump political committees during the 2024 campaign.
A federal judge bars DOGE from accessing sensitive personal information at three federal agencies, finding that several DOGE staffers were granted access before background checks were completed.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cut approximately 20,000 HHS positions, gutted the CDC, fired the entire vaccine advisory committee, and clawed back over $12 billion in public health funding. During this dismantlement, the US experienced its worst measles outbreak in over 30 years — 2,285+ cases and at least 3 deaths — and stands poised to lose its measles-free status for the first time.
Reporting reveals internal DHS documents showing that in nearly all cases, the arrests were recommended based on involvement in campus protests and public writings. The documents state that 'D.H.S. has not identified any alternative grounds for removability' for multiple detained students.
From: Political Prisoners: Detention of Campus Activists for Pro-Palestinian Speech
Trump issues EO 14250 targeting WilmerHale for employing Robert Mueller before and after his appointment as special counsel.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Law Firms Representing Trump's Opponents
Trump signs EO 14251, 'Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs,' designating over a dozen agencies as national security organizations and stripping collective bargaining from 950,000 federal employees.
A federal judge signals he will grant a restraining order to temporarily protect Voice of America, and RFE/RL receives a separate temporary restraining order preserving its operations.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson grants a preliminary injunction preventing the CFPB from being shuttered. She orders data preserved, fired workers reinstated, and work to resume, ruling that the executive branch cannot eliminate a Congressionally-created agency without legislation.
From: DOGE Shuts Down Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 'CFPB RIP'
The appeals court stays the district court's reinstatement order, keeping the NLRB without a quorum.
The Navajo Nation lodges formal complaints with the Department of Homeland Security, documenting at least 15 encounters between ICE agents and tribal citizens between January and March 2025. An Arizona state senator reports being questioned by ICE despite presenting a Certificate of Indian Blood.
Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco ordered DHS to continue TPS for Venezuelans, finding the termination likely unlawful.
From: Termination of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan Nationals
Voting rights organizations file lawsuits challenging the executive order as exceeding presidential authority and violating voting rights protections.
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
HHS Secretary Kennedy lays off nearly 50% of the Administration for Community Living staff, cutting the agency responsible for disability services, independent living, and protection and advocacy.
Federal student loan borrowers report inability to reach servicers, delays in income-driven repayment applications, and disruptions to loan forgiveness processing. Consumer advocacy organizations document complaints from borrowers unable to access accounts.
From: Department of Education: Near-Abolition and Mass Staff Terminations
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists publishes an analysis concluding that the DOGE firing fiasco at NNSA 'means everything but efficiency,' noting lasting damage to recruitment, morale, and institutional knowledge at nuclear weapons facilities.
From: DOGE Fires 350 Nuclear Weapons Workers at NNSA, Including Pantex Warhead Assemblers
The Department of Health and Human Services begins a formal reduction in force. Approximately 20% of the firings are later determined to have been made in error. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) loses two-thirds of its workforce.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
In an unprecedented order, a federal court requires all DOGE team members to disgorge and delete all non-anonymized personal information obtained from SSA systems.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
Border military deployments escalated to over 10,000 active-duty troops, with expanded authority to detain and search people.
From: Military Deployments at the US-Mexico Border and the Posse Comitatus Act
AG Bondi directs prosecutors to seek the federal death penalty against Luigi Mangione for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, marking the first federal death sentence sought under the executive order.
From: Federal Death Penalty Expansion and Discriminatory Application
The administration requests significantly less PEPFAR funding and cancels numerous HIV-related awards. Congress later continues to appropriate PEPFAR funding near prior levels, including $4.8 billion for FY2026 (KFF).
From: PEPFAR Freeze: HIV/AIDS Treatment Cut for 20 Million People Across Africa
Federal courts issue multiple injunctions against deportation flights and detention policies. The administration appeals aggressively and in some cases proceeds with removals while challenges are pending.
From: Second-Term Mass Deportations: Largest Enforcement Operation in U.S. History
European NATO leaders convene emergency consultations on how to maintain security cooperation given U.S. posture changes. France and UK accelerate independent defense investment discussions. The European Defense Industrial Strategy is accelerated.
From: NATO Article 5 Threats: Encouraging Russia to Attack Allies Who Don't Pay
On April 2, 2025 — which Trump called 'Liberation Day' — Trump signed executive orders imposing a 10% baseline tariff on all imports and 'reciprocal' tariffs of 11% to 50% on specific countries, including key allies. The tariffs were the most sweeping U.S. trade action since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930. China faced cumulative tariffs of 145%. Canada and Mexico faced 25% tariffs on most goods. Global financial markets fell sharply. The administration paused some tariffs 90 days after announcement under market pressure, while maintaining China tariffs.
Global markets begin sharp declines over April 3 and 4. Bond yields spike unusually, suggesting foreign selling of U.S. Treasuries. World leaders respond with alarm.
From: 2025 Tariff Shock: Sweeping Import Taxes Trigger Global Trade Crisis
AFGE, AFSCME, NAGE-SEIU, NFFE-IAM, NNU, and SEIU file a joint lawsuit challenging the collective bargaining executive order as unconstitutional retaliation.
The American Prospect details how DOGE's privatization push and contract terminations systematically benefit Musk's companies while harming competitors and public services.
From: Musk's $38 Billion Government Contract Empire Untouched While Leading DOGE Cuts
The Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament takes place at Trump National Doral, marking the first time the event occurs with Trump as sitting president. LIV pays the Trump family for use of the resort, and thousands of fans fill the resort's hotels and restaurants.
From: Trump Emoluments: Foreign Government Payments Through Business Deals, Gifts, and Cryptocurrency
A Maryland federal judge orders the government to return Abrego Garcia from El Salvador. The administration resists compliance and appeals to the Supreme Court.
From: Pattern of Wrongful Deportations: US Citizens and Protected Individuals Removed Despite Court Orders
The Social Security Administration falsely lists more than 6,000 living immigrants as deceased in its records, effectively cutting off their benefits and legal status. The errors are linked to data-matching operations conducted during the period of DOGE access to SSA systems.
From: DOGE Employees Matched Social Security Data with Voter Rolls to Pursue Voter Fraud Claims
The Supreme Court stays the Northern California district court injunction that had required reinstatement of 16,000 probationary employees, holding that the nonprofit plaintiffs' allegations were insufficient to support standing; it did not rule on the legality of the firings. The next day, an appeals court rules similarly in the Maryland case, effectively allowing the administration to proceed with the firings.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
Judge Trevor McFadden rules the White House must lift its access restrictions on the AP while the lawsuit proceeds.
From: Second-Term Press Attacks: AP Barred From Press Pool, Pool Access Restricted
The administration announces a 90-day pause on tariffs above the 10% baseline for all countries except China. The announcement comes after significant market pressure and reported lobbying by Treasury Secretary Bessent. Markets surge on the news.
From: 2025 Tariff Shock: Sweeping Import Taxes Trigger Global Trade Crisis
Trump issues an executive order targeting Susman Godfrey for representing Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation case against Fox News.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Law Firms Representing Trump's Opponents
Trump signs an executive order revoking clearances from former CISA Director Chris Krebs, ordering a DOJ investigation into him, and revoking clearances from all employees of his cybersecurity company SentinelOne — the first direct presidential action against a US cybersecurity company.
From: Weaponization of Security Clearances for Political Retaliation
In an unsigned order with no noted dissents, the Court held that the district court's order properly required the government to 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's return. In a statement joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, Justice Sotomayor wrote that the government's argument implied it 'could deport and incarcerate any person, including U. S. citizens, without legal consequence.'
From: Kilmar Abrego Garcia Deported to El Salvador Despite Withholding Order
In an unsigned order with no public dissents, the Supreme Court holds that the district court properly required the government to 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador and return, while asking the district court to clarify its direction to 'effectuate' the return. The administration reads 'facilitate' as not requiring it to seek his release.
From: Pattern of Wrongful Deportations: US Citizens and Protected Individuals Removed Despite Court Orders
Human Rights Watch reports on the forced disappearance of Venezuelan deportees held incommunicado at CECOT.
From: Forced Disappearances of Salvadoran Deportees in El Salvador's Prison System
The Maryland judge issues a second order demanding the government facilitate Abrego Garcia's return, as the administration continues to resist the initial ruling.
From: Pattern of Wrongful Deportations: US Citizens and Protected Individuals Removed Despite Court Orders
An immigration judge found Khalil deportable based on Secretary of State Rubio's assertion that his 'continued presence posed adverse foreign policy consequences.'
From: Deportation Proceedings Against Mahmoud Khalil for Pro-Palestine Protest Activity
NPR publishes an investigation revealing that DOGE employees at SSA may have improperly used Social Security data to pursue voter fraud narratives, including the unauthorized data-sharing agreement with the political advocacy group.
From: DOGE Employees Matched Social Security Data with Voter Rolls to Pursue Voter Fraud Claims
A D.C. Circuit panel partially stays Judge Jackson's preliminary injunction pending appeal (modified April 28, 2025). The CFPB remains operational only in diminished form.
From: DOGE Shuts Down Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 'CFPB RIP'
China's retaliatory tariff on U.S. goods rises to 125%, after successive increases from 34%. Cumulative U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports reach 145%. Routine trade in many product categories becomes economically nonviable.
From: 2025 Tariff Shock: Sweeping Import Taxes Trigger Global Trade Crisis
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts issued a nationwide preliminary injunction staying the categorical termination of CHNV parole.
From: Termination of CHNV Humanitarian Parole for 532,000 People
The administration freezes $2.2 billion in federal funding to Harvard after the university refuses demands to change DEI policies, admissions, and student conduct rules.
From: Coercion of Universities: Funding Freezes, Research Cuts, and Demands for Political Compliance
In LULAC v. Executive Office of the President, the court grants a preliminary injunction blocking the EAC from amending the federal voter registration form to require proof of citizenship.
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
School districts in high-need communities warn that uncertainty about Title I funding distribution is affecting hiring decisions for the following school year. Districts most dependent on federal funding face the greatest planning challenges.
From: Department of Education: Near-Abolition and Mass Staff Terminations
Harvard sues the federal government, arguing the funding freeze violates the First Amendment and exceeds executive authority.
From: Coercion of Universities: Funding Freezes, Research Cuts, and Demands for Political Compliance
Investigative reporting revealed the scope of the dismantlement, including personnel reductions and elimination of the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence.
From: Dismantlement of Pentagon Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Program
In a 46-page ruling, the judge concluded probable cause existed to find the government in criminal contempt for continuing deportation flights despite his restraining order.
From: Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to Accelerate Venezuelan Deportations
In a 46-page ruling, Boasberg concluded probable cause existed to find the government in criminal contempt for defying his order.
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
On April 17, 2025, US forces struck the Ras Issa oil terminal near Hodeidah, Yemen, with 14 airstrikes, killing at least 84 civilians and injuring over 150. The port handles approximately 70% of Yemen's commercial imports and 80% of its humanitarian aid. Human Rights Watch concluded the strikes should be investigated as an 'apparent war crime.'
14 US airstrikes hit the Ras Issa oil terminal near Hodeidah, killing at least 84 civilians and injuring over 150. Victims include 49 port workers, truck drivers, civil defense personnel, and three children. HRW later concludes the strikes are an apparent war crime.
From: Operation Rough Rider: US Killed More Civilians in 52 Days Than in Previous 23 Years in Yemen
US District Court for the District of Maryland issues a preliminary injunction barring SSA from granting DOGE personnel access to personally identifiable information, citing privacy risks to virtually every American. The court orders all DOGE team members to delete non-anonymized personal data obtained from SSA systems.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
Chris Krebs resigns from SentinelOne following the executive order, demonstrating the career destruction the revocations cause.
From: Weaponization of Security Clearances for Political Retaliation
Al Jazeera publishes initial reporting confirming at least 80 killed and over 150 injured in the strikes on Ras Issa, with rescuers still searching through rubble.
From: US Strikes on Ras Issa Fuel Port Kill 84+ Civilians in Yemen
Al Jazeera, citing Inside Higher Ed's count, reports that nearly 1,700 students have had visas revoked or status terminated. Many targets participated in pro-Palestine protests or posted support for Gaza; others lost status after minor legal infractions such as traffic violations.
From: Mass Student Visa Revocations Targeting Pro-Palestine Protesters
The Trump administration confirms that approximately 50,000 federal employees — 2% of the total workforce — will be eligible for reclassification under Schedule Policy/Career, losing their civil service protections.
From: Schedule F Reclassification: Mass Removal of Civil Service Protections
Absent the court injunction, parole and employment authorization would have terminated on this date for all 532,000 CHNV beneficiaries.
From: Termination of CHNV Humanitarian Parole for 532,000 People
After the Ninth Circuit denies an emergency stay on April 18, the Trump administration files an emergency application with the Supreme Court seeking to stay the preliminary injunction and implement the transgender military ban.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Transgender Rights and Gender Identity Recognition
A federal court grants a preliminary injunction protecting San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and other plaintiffs, finding a likelihood of irreparable harm from the funding threats and potential constitutional violations.
From: Punishing Sanctuary Jurisdictions: Federal Funding Cutoffs and Threats Against Entire States
ICE in New Orleans removes three US-citizen children, aged 2, 4 and 7, to Honduras with their mothers; V.M.L.'s family had been detained at a routine immigration check-in. According to the ACLU of Louisiana, the 4-year-old, who has a rare metastatic cancer, is removed without medication or a consultation with her doctors. The 2-year-old, V.M.L., is removed before a federal court can act on a habeas petition (Rolling Stone, ABC7).
From: Pattern of Wrongful Deportations: US Citizens and Protected Individuals Removed Despite Court Orders
A detailed memorandum from the Senate Homeland Security Committee minority staff documents the scope of Musk's conflicts of interest across DOGE activities, including access to competitor data and preferential treatment for his companies.
From: Musk's $38 Billion Government Contract Empire Untouched While Leading DOGE Cuts
On April 28, 2025, US military airstrikes under Operation Rough Rider struck a migrant detention center in Sa'ada, northwestern Yemen, killing 61 to 68 detained African migrants by different counts and injuring 47 to 56 others. The facility held 115 undocumented migrants — mostly Ethiopian and Somali nationals — who were sleeping when the strikes hit before 5:00 AM. Amnesty International found no evidence the facility was a military objective and concluded the attack was an indiscriminate strike that must be investigated as a war crime.
US strikes hit a detention center in Saada Governorate holding African migrants, killing at least 68 people and injuring 47 others. Amnesty International calls for the strike to be investigated as a war crime, noting the victims were migrants with no connection to the Houthi movement.
From: Operation Rough Rider: US Killed More Civilians in 52 Days Than in Previous 23 Years in Yemen
HRW reports the strike and calls on the US military to conduct a transparent investigation into the attack on the migrant detention center.
From: US Airstrike Kills 61 to 68 African Migrants in Yemen Detention Center
The US Naval Institute reports that Operation Rough Rider has hit over 1,000 targets in 45 days, making it one of the most intensive US bombing campaigns in recent history.
From: Operation Rough Rider: US Killed More Civilians in 52 Days Than in Previous 23 Years in Yemen
ICE arrests nearly double during Trump's first 100 days, with Stephen Miller announcing a daily target of 3,000 arrests.
From: Systematic Racial Profiling in Immigration Enforcement and Wrongful Detention of US Citizens
RFK Jr. cuts jobs at minority health offices across HHS, eliminating staff focused on health equity and reducing disparities in vaccination rates among vulnerable populations.
From: HHS Dismantlement Under RFK Jr. During the Worst Measles Outbreak in 30 Years
Additional flights on March 30 and April 12 brought the total number of Venezuelan nationals deported to CECOT to 252, according to HRW. Deportees included asylum seekers with no criminal history.
From: Secret Deportation of 252 Venezuelans to CECOT Mega-Prison
DHS's overhauled SAVE system, now incorporating Social Security data, begins verifying the citizenship of registered voters for states (NPR dates the start to May 2025).
Secretary Rubio announces visa restriction policies targeting foreign workers in content moderation, trust and safety, and compliance — weaponizing immigration authority to influence platform speech policies.
From: FCC Broadcast License Threats and Government Coercion of Media
President Trump announces that Mike Waltz is leaving the post of National Security Advisor and will be nominated as UN Ambassador, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio serving as acting National Security Advisor. The transition is widely attributed at least in part to the Signalgate incident.
From: Signalgate: Top Officials Share Classified Strike Plans in Unsecured Group Chat
The administration pushes forward with major arms packages to the UAE. Legislators in both chambers introduce joint resolutions of disapproval to block the sales, citing the UAE's documented role in arming the RSF in Sudan's genocide. The resolutions are defeated along party lines.
Elon Musk leaves his role as senior adviser to President Trump and head of DOGE.
From: Musk's Private Bodyguards Deputized as Federal Agents Without Required Training
The Air Force annexed a 250-mile stretch of the Texas border as a 'national defense area,' a designation typically reserved for military installations.
From: Military Deployments at the US-Mexico Border and the Posse Comitatus Act
ICE raises its daily arrest target from 1,000 to 3,000, leading to a surge in 'collateral arrests' — people not initially targeted who are swept up during enforcement operations near previously protected locations.
From: Rescission of ICE Sensitive Locations Policy — Churches, Schools, and Hospitals Open to Raids
AFRICOM ceases providing death toll assessments in response to media queries, stating it is 'temporarily refraining from publishing casualty estimates while the new administration finalizes its policy.'
From: Massive Escalation of US Airstrikes in Somalia with Zero Civilian Accountability
A Senate report documents that oversight employees are 'terrified' to report wrongdoing, speak up, or disagree with administration priorities, demonstrating a systemic chilling effect.
From: Dismantlement of Whistleblower Protections and Government Oversight Infrastructure
Federal judge permanently blocks the Perkins Coie order as unconstitutional, finding it violated First Amendment rights of speech and association and constituted unlawful retaliation.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Law Firms Representing Trump's Opponents
CNN reports that 30 of the NWS's 122 forecast offices now lack a lead meteorologist. Goodland, Kansas and Hanford, California are identified as the two most understaffed offices in the nation.
From: DOGE Guts National Weather Service: 30 Offices Lose Lead Meteorologists Ahead of Hurricane Season
In an NBC News interview, Trump again refused to rule out military force to acquire Greenland, citing US national security.
From: Military and Economic Threats Against Greenland and Panama Canal Sovereignty
President Trump declares Operation Rough Rider over 'effective immediately' following a ceasefire between the US and the Houthis brokered by Oman, after over 1,000 targets were struck in 45 days.
From: US Airstrike Kills 61 to 68 African Migrants in Yemen Detention Center
A federal judge in Denver permanently enjoined the use of the Alien Enemies Act for immigration removals.
From: Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to Accelerate Venezuelan Deportations
Operation Rough Rider ends with a ceasefire between the United States and the Houthi movement, brokered by Oman. The 53-day campaign has struck 800+ targets and caused unprecedented civilian casualties.
From: Operation Rough Rider: US Killed More Civilians in 52 Days Than in Previous 23 Years in Yemen
The Supreme Court stays the nationwide Shilling injunction, allowing the ban to take effect while litigation continues.
From: Second-Term Transgender Military Ban: Executive Order 14183
Amnesty International publishes initial findings on the Sa'ada strike and demands that US authorities promptly and transparently investigate the attack that killed dozens of migrants.
From: US Airstrike Kills 61 to 68 African Migrants in Yemen Detention Center
ABC7 reports that the family of V.M.L. has voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit 'to give themselves space and time to consider all the options that are available to them' (ACLU attorney Gracie Willis). Judge Terry Doughty had said he had a strong suspicion that the government deported a US citizen 'with no meaningful process' and had scheduled a hearing for May 16 (ABC7).
From: Pattern of Wrongful Deportations: US Citizens and Protected Individuals Removed Despite Court Orders
The first group of 59 white South Africans arrives at Dulles International Airport in Virginia under the Mission South Africa program, receiving full refugee status and benefits.
From: White Afrikaner Refugee Program: 1,648 of 1,651 US Refugees Are White South Africans
During a Saudi Arabia visit, the Trump Organization and Dar Global unveil $10 billion in new projects including towers in Riyadh and Jeddah. The White House confirms Qatar has offered to donate a Boeing 747-8 jet valued at about $400 million to the Department of Defense; Trump says it will go to his presidential library after his term. Many ethics experts criticize the arrangement as an Emoluments Clause problem.
From: Trump Emoluments: Foreign Government Payments Through Business Deals, Gifts, and Cryptocurrency
After eight weeks of ICE detention, a federal judge orders the release of Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri. The court finds insufficient grounds for his continued detention.
From: Political Prisoners: Detention of Campus Activists for Pro-Palestinian Speech
More than 500 VOA staff members — both contractors and employees — receive termination notices indicating their contracts will end on May 23 or May 30, escalating the dismantlement despite ongoing legal challenges.
Mohammed Hoque is released on $7,500 bond after an immigration court and then a federal judge order the government to release him while his case proceeds. He has been detained for approximately two months.
From: Political Prisoners: Detention of Campus Activists for Pro-Palestinian Speech
Reports emerge that the administration is working on a plan to relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to Libya, in exchange for releasing frozen Libyan funds. Earlier reports said the US and Israel had approached Sudan and Somali regions, which Somalia and Sudan rejected. No agreement is reached.
From: Trump Proposes Forcible Displacement of 2.3 Million Palestinians from Gaza
Vietnam's government approves a $1.5 billion development for the Trump Organization and a partner to build a golf resort outside Hanoi, including a golf course, hotel, and residential areas across 2,446 acres. The approval comes as Vietnam seeks to avoid a 46% US import tariff.
From: Trump Emoluments: Foreign Government Payments Through Business Deals, Gifts, and Cryptocurrency
NPR reported that the mass exodus gutted the division responsible for enforcing federal civil rights laws.
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
The Supreme Court granted the government's request to stay Judge Chen's order while litigation continued.
From: Termination of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan Nationals
NPR reports that approximately 250 attorneys — 70% of the division's lawyers — have left or will leave the DOJ Civil Rights Division. Division head Harmeet Dhillon celebrates the departures.
From: Weaponization of the Department of Justice: Retaliatory Investigations and Prosecutions
The 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' (H.R. 1), signed into law on July 4, 2025, includes an estimated $863 billion in Medicaid cuts and $295 billion in SNAP cuts over ten years. The Congressional Budget Office projected, for the House-passed version, that 10.9 million Americans would lose health insurance, while SNAP work requirements will extend to age 64, cutting food aid for approximately 800,000 older adults per month.
A federal judge in the District of Massachusetts issues a preliminary injunction blocking the layoffs and ordering affected employees reinstated.
From: Department of Education: Near-Abolition and Mass Staff Terminations
The Supreme Court rules Wilcox cannot return to work while she challenges her termination, leaving the NLRB without a quorum indefinitely.
Judge Bates rules the Jenner & Block order unconstitutional, finding it 'seeks to chill legal representation the administration doesn't like.'
From: Executive Orders Targeting Law Firms Representing Trump's Opponents
Five former directors of the National Weather Service issue a joint letter warning that the staffing cuts leave the nation dangerously unprepared heading into hurricane season and the peak period for tornado predictions.
From: DOGE Guts National Weather Service: 30 Offices Lose Lead Meteorologists Ahead of Hurricane Season
From 26 May 2025 the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) ran four militarised food distribution sites in Gaza, replacing much of the UN-led aid system during a famine. The UN human rights office recorded at least 1,373 Palestinians killed while seeking food between 27 May and 31 July 2025, 859 of them near GHF sites, most by the Israeli military. Human Rights Watch called the killings war crimes. On 26 June 2025, a month into the killings, the State Department approved US$30 million for GHF, bypassing congressional approval, according to HRW. GHF wound down its operations in November 2025.
A federal judge issues a permanent injunction finding the WilmerHale executive order unconstitutional.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Law Firms Representing Trump's Opponents
In late May, Trump pardons multiple convicted corrupt politicians including Scott Jenkins (VA sheriff, $75K+ in bribes), P.G. Sittenfeld (OH council, illegal campaign contributions), John Rowland (former Connecticut governor, sentenced for federal crimes in both 2005 and 2015), and Jeremy Hutchinson (former Arkansas state senator, sentenced to a combined 96 months for bribery conspiracy and tax offenses).
The NWS Goodland office, down from 13 to 5 meteorologists, becomes the first NWS forecast office to stop operating 24/7. The office closes from 11 PM to 6 AM, with surrounding offices monitoring the area during those hours. About a dozen more offices are expected to follow.
From: DOGE Guts National Weather Service: 30 Offices Lose Lead Meteorologists Ahead of Hurricane Season
Elon Musk departs his government role after reaching the 130-day limit for special government employees. His departure follows months of controversy over DOGE's mass firings, data access, and spending cuts across federal agencies.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley receive full and unconditional pardons for conspiracy to defraud the US, bank fraud, tax evasion, and wire fraud.
The Supreme Court granted the government's request to stay Judge Talwani's injunction, allowing the CHNV parole termination to proceed. Justices Jackson and Sotomayor dissented.
From: Termination of CHNV Humanitarian Parole for 532,000 People
The Trump administration engaged in a pattern of journalist arrests, detention, and deportation, including the federal arrest of Don Lemon, the deportation of Spanish-language journalist Mario Guevara to the country he fled, and the detention of reporter Estefany Rodriguez. Separately, AP journalists covering a Cameroonian facility holding US deportees were detained by Cameroonian authorities.
The Trump administration established deportation agreements with Rwanda ($7.5M), Ghana, Eswatini ($5.1M), and South Sudan to accept immigrants deported from the United States who are not nationals of those countries. A federal judge ruled the policy violates federal immigration law and constitutional due process. Human Rights Watch found the opaque deals violate international human rights law, and Ghana's own courts face challenges to the agreement's constitutionality.
Israeli tanks open fire on crowds at GHF distribution points; at least 31 are killed in Rafah and one near Gaza City, and more than 200 injured. Nine people had already been killed in two earlier shootings at the sites (Al Jazeera).
In State of California v. Trump, a Massachusetts district court issues an injunction blocking additional provisions of the executive order.
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
Airwars publishes its analysis documenting at least 224 civilian deaths during Operation Rough Rider, nearly matching the 258 civilians it tracked as allegedly killed by US actions in Yemen over the previous 23 years.
From: Operation Rough Rider: US Killed More Civilians in 52 Days Than in Previous 23 Years in Yemen
Associated Press and PBS NewsHour documented ICE agents arresting immigrants at mandatory court check-ins and hearings, with government attorneys coordinating dismissals as arrest triggers.
From: Deportation Traps at Immigration Court Hearings and Systematic Denial of Due Process
The Kansas Reflector publishes an investigation into the Goodland closure, noting that western Kansas is part of Tornado Alley and that the overnight hours when the office is now closed are precisely when nighttime tornadoes — the deadliest kind — typically strike.
From: DOGE Guts National Weather Service: 30 Offices Lose Lead Meteorologists Ahead of Hurricane Season
National Guard deployments expanded beyond the border to domestic cities, including Los Angeles, for immigration enforcement operations.
From: Military Deployments at the US-Mexico Border and the Posse Comitatus Act
Approximately 500 migrant children had been taken into government custody in the first five months, with ORR virtually ceasing to release children to relatives.
From: Family Separations and Prolonged Child Detention Under Immigration Enforcement
A Lancet HIV modelling study projects 0.77 to 2.93 million additional HIV-related deaths in low- and middle-income countries in 2025-2030 if PEPFAR support is discontinued alongside anticipated aid cuts, falling to 0.005 to 0.061 million if PEPFAR is reinstated.
From: PEPFAR Freeze: HIV/AIDS Treatment Cut for 20 Million People Across Africa
Reports indicate the administration is laying quiet groundwork to use the 1873 Comstock Act to ban the mailing of mifepristone and abortion equipment, which would function as a de facto nationwide abortion ban.
From: Restrictions on Reproductive Rights and Comstock Act Revival
The Trump administration issued a series of travel bans in 2025 that expanded from the original first-term ban to cover people from up to 39 countries, predominantly Muslim-majority, African, and Southeast Asian nations. The initial June 2025 proclamation restricted entry from 12 countries and partially restricted 7 more. A December 2025 expansion added 7 additional countries including Syria and Palestine, with all restrictions taking effect January 1, 2026.
In 2025, the US vetoed at least two UN Security Council resolutions demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza — in June and September — bringing the total vetoes on Gaza ceasefires to six. Each time, the US was the sole dissenting vote among all 15 council members. The September veto occurred at the council's 10,000th meeting, where famine and possible genocide in Gaza were discussed.
The Congressional Budget Office releases its analysis of the House-passed bill, projecting that 10.9 million Americans will lose health insurance under its Medicaid and ACA provisions. SNAP cuts are scored at $295 billion over ten years.
From: One Big Beautiful Bill: $1 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts and $295 Billion in SNAP Cuts
Human Rights Watch publishes its investigation into the Ras Issa strikes, concluding they should be investigated as an apparent war crime given the port's civilian character and the disproportionate civilian casualties.
From: US Strikes on Ras Issa Fuel Port Kill 84+ Civilians in Yemen
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor publishes its own assessment calling the strikes an unlawful use of force warranting immediate investigation and accountability.
From: US Strikes on Ras Issa Fuel Port Kill 84+ Civilians in Yemen
Center for Constitutional Rights sues the Trump administration to compel release of information about conditions and policies at the Guantanamo immigrant detention facility.
From: Guantanamo Bay Immigrant Detention: Solitary Confinement and Ill-Treatment
Secretary of State Rubio placed four ICC judges on the sanctions list -- from Slovenia, Benin, Peru, and Uganda -- for their roles in cases involving US allies.
From: Executive Order Sanctioning International Criminal Court Officials
After nearly three months in Salvadoran custody, and nearly two months after the Supreme Court order, Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States to face new criminal charges in Tennessee.
From: Kilmar Abrego Garcia Deported to El Salvador Despite Withholding Order
The government returns Abrego Garcia to the United States, and the Justice Department announces he has been indicted in Tennessee on human-smuggling charges.
From: Pattern of Wrongful Deportations: US Citizens and Protected Individuals Removed Despite Court Orders
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia — wrongly deported to CECOT despite a court order protecting him — is returned to the US, and the Justice Department announces a Tennessee indictment on human smuggling charges based on a 2022 traffic stop. Legal observers and The Intercept describe the charges as retaliatory. A federal judge dismissed the criminal case in May 2026; the Justice Department appealed in August 2026.
From: Secret $6 Million Contract to Outsource Detention to El Salvador's CECOT
The Supreme Court grants the Trump administration's emergency application, lifting the injunction blocking DOGE access to Social Security data. All three liberal justices dissent. The Court also exempts DOGE from responding to a FOIA request for information about its recommendations to the president.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
The government returns Abrego Garcia to the United States, where he is indicted in Tennessee on human-smuggling charges.
From: Second-Term Mass Deportations: Largest Enforcement Operation in U.S. History
A divided D.C. Circuit panel (2-1) grants a partial stay pending appeal, holding that restricted spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One are not First Amendment forums.
From: Second-Term Press Attacks: AP Barred From Press Pool, Pool Access Restricted
The Trump administration federalized approximately 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles without the governor's consent — the first such action since the 1960s — in response to immigration protests. A federal judge called the deployment 'profoundly un-American' and ordered it ended. The Supreme Court separately declined, 6-3, to stay an order blocking an attempted deployment of National Guard troops to Illinois.
An additional 2,000 National Guard members are authorized for deployment, bringing the total to over 4,100. Additionally, 700 Marines are mobilized to support the National Guard in Los Angeles, nearby Compton, and Paramount.
From: Illegal National Guard Deployments to Los Angeles and Attempted Deployment to Chicago
RFK Jr. removes all 17 current members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the expert body that advises on the national vaccine schedule. The mass firing is unprecedented in the committee's history.
From: HHS Dismantlement Under RFK Jr. During the Worst Measles Outbreak in 30 Years
US District Judge Denise Cote grants a preliminary injunction restricting DOGE access to OPM databases, finding that OPM 'violated the law and bypassed its established cybersecurity practices' when it first granted DOGE broad access. She rules that 'the defendants disclosed OPM records to individuals who had no legal right of access to those records.'
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
The Trump administration escalated a systematic crackdown on protests, including the fatal shooting of American citizen Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026, deployment of 3,000 federal agents to Minneapolis, threats to invoke the Insurrection Act, expanded Federal Protective Service powers to criminalize protest activities near federal buildings, NSPM-7 branding anti-fascism and left-wing political views as 'domestic terrorism,' and the forced federalization of National Guard troops over governors' objections.
NPR reports that retired generals confirm the deployment is unprecedented — at no time in US history had the federal government invoked this authority without the consent of the state governor before Trump's action.
From: Illegal National Guard Deployments to Los Angeles and Attempted Deployment to Chicago
Secretary of State Rubio directed that all USAID overseas positions be abolished by September 30, 2025, effectively dismantling the agency's global operational presence.
From: Systematic Dismantlement of USAID and Global Humanitarian Consequences
A senior DHS official sends an email 'unilaterally declaring that ICE's obligations under the Consent Decree were terminated' (Seventh Circuit).
Eleven asylum seekers, Al Otro Lado and Haitian Bridge Alliance sue to challenge the asylum shutdown policy and the cancellation of CBP One appointments.
From: CBP One App Shutdown: 30,000 Asylum Appointments Cancelled, 270,000 Stranded
Large-scale protests against immigration enforcement erupt across multiple cities. 86 arrests at protests outside federal immigration court; 24 arrested at Trump Tower sit-in.
DHS began issuing individual notices of parole termination to CHNV beneficiaries, explicitly encouraging them to 'self-deport immediately.'
From: Termination of CHNV Humanitarian Parole for 532,000 People
The administration's FY2026 budget proposal includes a $646 million reduction for FEMA, targeting grant programs and including an $83.9 million workforce reduction. The BRIC disaster preparedness program is terminated entirely.
From: FEMA Dismantlement — Budget Cuts, Mass Layoffs, and Destruction of Disaster Response Capacity
The Center for American Progress publishes analysis showing that the $863 billion in Medicaid cuts directly correspond to approximately $1 trillion in tax cuts concentrated among the wealthiest 1% of Americans.
From: One Big Beautiful Bill: $1 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts and $295 Billion in SNAP Cuts
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held the order 'invalid because it contradict[ed] the plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment.'
From: Executive Order Attempting to Restrict Fourteenth Amendment Birthright Citizenship
The Commonwealth Fund publishes analysis showing how Medicaid and SNAP cutbacks would trigger significant job losses across states, with healthcare and food service sectors hit hardest.
From: One Big Beautiful Bill: $1 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts and $295 Billion in SNAP Cuts
Judge Michael Farbiarz (D.N.J.) ordered Khalil released on bail; he was released on June 21. DHS stated he would be re-detained and deported to Algeria.
From: Deportation Proceedings Against Mahmoud Khalil for Pro-Palestine Protest Activity
On June 22, 2025, during the Israel–Iran war, US forces struck Iran's nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Al Jazeera reported 125 aircraft, 14 GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs dropped by B-2s, and more than two dozen submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles. There was no congressional authorisation and no UN Security Council mandate. Iran called it a 'grave violation of the UN Charter'; the UN Secretary-General called it 'a dangerous escalation.' The Senate rejected a war powers resolution 47–53.
Marketplace publishes an investigation documenting the specific operational impacts of DOGE cuts on food safety, including the multi-step approval process for emergency purchases that delays outbreak investigations by up to two weeks.
From: FDA Food Safety Collapse: 3,500+ Staff Cut and Outbreak Investigation Capacity Gutted
Fired DOJ immigration lawyer Erez Reuveni alleges that DOJ leadership 'knowingly and willfully defied court orders, directed their subordinate attorneys to make misrepresentations to courts,' and that Emil Bove said in March 2025 that the department might need to tell the courts 'f*** you' over Alien Enemies Act removals. Bove says he has 'no recollection of saying anything of that kind.'
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
CNN reports the Trump administration is scrambling to rehire key federal workers after DOGE firings created dangerous gaps in critical functions. DOE had fired and then attempted to rehire nuclear weapons safety staff. The IRS reinstated 7,613 employees to prevent tax season collapse.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
Al Jazeera reports that under the Trump administration, US strikes on Somalia have more than doubled compared to the prior year, with AFRICOM increasingly citing homeland security rationales.
From: Massive Escalation of US Airstrikes in Somalia with Zero Civilian Accountability
The Urban Institute reports that Medicaid cuts in the bill leave 3 in 10 young adults vulnerable to losing health care access, with disproportionate impacts on low-income and minority communities.
From: One Big Beautiful Bill: $1 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts and $295 Billion in SNAP Cuts
At the NATO summit in The Hague, allies commit to invest 5% of GDP annually on core defence requirements and defence- and security-related spending by 2035, and reaffirm their 'ironclad commitment' to collective defence under Article 5.
From: NATO Article 5 Threats: Encouraging Russia to Attack Allies Who Don't Pay
Terry Gill (Lieber Institute, West Point) concludes the Israeli and US action does not qualify as self-defence under prevailing interpretations.
The US announces a $30 million allocation to GHF, one month after the killings at its sites began. HRW says it was sent without the usual congressional approvals (HRW; CBS News).
The Senate votes 47–53 against Sen. Kaine's resolution requiring congressional authorisation for further hostilities against Iran (CBS News).
Judge AliKhan permanently blocks the Susman Godfrey order as unconstitutional, making it four-for-four judicial defeats.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Law Firms Representing Trump's Opponents
DHS announced the termination of TPS for Haiti, affecting approximately 348,000 people, despite the Level 4 travel advisory.
From: Deportations to Haiti Despite Gang Control and Humanitarian Collapse
DHS terminated TPS for Haiti, affecting approximately 348,000 people, despite Level 4 'Do Not Travel' advisory and 90% of Port-au-Prince under gang control.
From: Mass Termination of Temporary Protected Status Across 11 Countries
Data shows that nearly half of ICE arrests in June 2025 involved individuals with no criminal convictions, up from 23% in May. The trend accelerates through the year.
From: Rescission of ICE Sensitive Locations Policy — Churches, Schools, and Hospitals Open to Raids
The DOJ files suit against 29 states and Washington, DC for refusing to hand over complete voter registration files.
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
The administration proposes eliminating the 7% utilization goal for federal contractor hiring of disabled workers, along with self-identification and utilization analysis requirements.
NPR reports that migrants deported to Salvadoran prison remain technically under US control despite being held by Salvadoran authorities.
From: Forced Disappearances of Salvadoran Deportees in El Salvador's Prison System
The EPA terminates $20 billion in climate grants that included approximately $1.5 billion earmarked for Native American communities. EPA Administrator Zeldin also terminates the separate $7 billion Solar for All program, eliminating more than $500 million in tribal solar funding that supported 35 tribes.
NIPNLG issues a press release marking 125 days since the first transfers, noting that detainees remain held without access to attorneys or families and that the US government has effectively 'disappeared' migrants.
From: Secret $6 Million Contract to Outsource Detention to El Salvador's CECOT
The first wave of the reduction-in-force took effect, separating the majority of USAID career staff. The remainder were scheduled for separation by September 2.
From: Systematic Dismantlement of USAID and Global Humanitarian Consequences
U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss ruled in a 128-page decision that the proclamation and implementing guidance could not be used to remove people without the INA's removal procedures and asylum protections, finding that 'The President cannot adopt an alternative immigration system, which supplants the statutes that Congress has enacted.' The ruling was set to take effect in two weeks.
After the Senate passes an amended version 51–50 on July 1, the House agrees to it 218–214, retaining the health and food assistance cuts and sending the bill to the President.
From: One Big Beautiful Bill: $1 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts and $295 Billion in SNAP Cuts
President Trump signs H.R. 1 into law (Public Law 119-21).
From: One Big Beautiful Bill: $1 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts and $295 Billion in SNAP Cuts
NPR reports growing anger over alleged racial profiling in immigration raids, with Latino community members reporting being 'antagonized for being Hispanic.'
From: Systematic Racial Profiling in Immigration Enforcement and Wrongful Detention of US Citizens
DHS terminated TPS for Honduras (72,000) and Nicaragua (4,000). Nepal (12,700) also terminated.
From: Mass Termination of Temporary Protected Status Across 11 Countries
The Trump administration systematically eliminated bond hearings for immigration detainees through a combination of ICE directives and a BIA precedential decision (Matter of Yajure Hurtado). The July 2025 ICE memo and September 2025 BIA ruling together stripped immigration judges of authority to grant bond to anyone who entered without inspection -- a category covering millions of people. As of June 2025, ICE held 57,861 detainees, 71.7% with no criminal convictions, facing indefinite detention without judicial review.
Axios review finds multiple US citizens wrongfully detained — one for 10 days — based on appearance and perceived ethnicity.
From: Systematic Racial Profiling in Immigration Enforcement and Wrongful Detention of US Citizens
The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including asset freezes, donation prohibitions, and travel bans, after unsuccessfully pressuring the UN to remove her. UN experts condemned the action as a threat to the entire human rights system.
A summary of texts and emails Reuveni provided says they support his account of Bove's 'f*** you' remark, of the department's inability to confirm whether Alien Enemies Act detainees were on flights to El Salvador in breach of Judge Boasberg's order, and of resistance to the injunction in D.V.D. v. DHS.
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
In McMahon v. New York (No. 24A1203), the Supreme Court stays the injunction 6-3, allowing the mass layoffs to proceed while litigation continues.
From: Department of Education: Near-Abolition and Mass Staff Terminations
The Ninth Circuit stayed the district court's order requiring refugee processing and admission, effectively halting court-ordered admissions.
From: Indefinite Suspension of US Refugee Admissions Program and Record-Low Resettlement Cap
The Pentagon announces the withdrawal of approximately 2,000 National Guard troops from California, representing nearly half of the soldiers deployed. Roughly 2,000 troops and 700 Marines remain.
From: Illegal National Guard Deployments to Los Angeles and Attempted Deployment to Chicago
All 252 Venezuelans held in CECOT, including those removed under the Act on March 15, were flown to Venezuela in an exchange for ten U.S. citizens held by the Venezuelan government.
From: Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to Accelerate Venezuelan Deportations
After about four months of incommunicado detention, all 252 Venezuelans held at CECOT were transferred to Venezuela in a prisoner exchange, according to Human Rights Watch.
From: Secret Deportation of 252 Venezuelans to CECOT Mega-Prison
During the AAUP trial, a senior State Department official testifies under oath that claims and phrases common to pro-Palestine campus advocacy — including criticism of Israel and calls for divestment — 'could be' grounds for revoking a noncitizen's visa.
From: Mass Student Visa Revocations Targeting Pro-Palestine Protesters
A comprehensive analysis documented dozens of examples of defiance, delay, and dishonesty in response to federal court orders.
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
Columbia agrees to pay $221 million to settle government claims and unfreeze remaining federal funding.
From: Coercion of Universities: Funding Freezes, Research Cuts, and Demands for Political Compliance
An executive order promotes institutionalization of people with mental illness and calls for reversing judicial protections against broad civil commitment.
The Senate confirms Emil Bove 50-49 to a lifetime seat on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit despite the whistleblower complaints; Republican Sens. Collins and Murkowski vote against (NPR).
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
Nearly all National Guard soldiers in Los Angeles begin demobilizing. Governor Newsom demands those remaining be released, calling the federalization 'illegal' and a violation of state sovereignty.
From: Illegal National Guard Deployments to Los Angeles and Attempted Deployment to Chicago
Through July 2025, foreign food safety inspections remain approximately 30% lower than in previous years. The shortfall particularly affects oversight of imported produce, seafood, and processed foods.
From: FDA Food Safety Collapse: 3,500+ Staff Cut and Outbreak Investigation Capacity Gutted
On August 1, 2025, hours after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employers added only 73,000 jobs in July and revised May and June down by 258,000, President Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer. He claimed without evidence that the numbers were 'RIGGED' to 'make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.' It was the first time a president had fired the head of the statistical agency. Economists across the political spectrum rejected the accusation. A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper found that measures of economic policy uncertainty 'rose sharply' after the firing.
The UN human rights office records 1,373 Palestinians killed seeking food since 27 May, 859 near GHF sites. HRW concludes the killings are war crimes and that the US is backing a deadly mechanism (UN News; HRW).
Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC's national immunization center, resigns in protest of Kennedy's actions, stating that the dismantlement is endangering public health.
From: HHS Dismantlement Under RFK Jr. During the Worst Measles Outbreak in 30 Years
ProPublica reported that at least 11,000 US citizen children had a parent arrested and detained by ICE in the first seven months of the second term.
From: Family Separations and Prolonged Child Detention Under Immigration Enforcement
Former BLS Commissioner Erica Groshen tells NPR the firing is 'without any modern precedence,' and NPR notes the President gave 'zero evidence' for his claim.
After months of degraded forecasting through peak severe weather season, NOAA receives permission to fill up to 450 positions at the NWS, including meteorologists, hydrologists, and radar technicians. The move is widely seen as an acknowledgment that the DOGE cuts went too far.
From: DOGE Guts National Weather Service: 30 Offices Lose Lead Meteorologists Ahead of Hurricane Season
AG Bondi sends letters to 32 mayors and multiple governors demanding they 'eliminate laws, policies, and practices that impede federal immigration enforcement' and give them until August 19 to respond.
From: Punishing Sanctuary Jurisdictions: Federal Funding Cutoffs and Threats Against Entire States
UN human rights experts condemned the sanctions as a threat to the entire human rights system and expressed continued support for Albanese's mandate.
A two-judge majority (both Trump appointees) threw out Judge Boasberg's criminal contempt ruling.
From: Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to Accelerate Venezuelan Deportations
A 2-1 D.C. Circuit panel (Judges Katsas and Rao, both Trump appointees; Judge Pillard dissenting) granted mandamus and vacated Judge Boasberg's probable-cause order.
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
Reporting reveals that farmers in Vietnam are being displaced for the $1.5 billion Trump golf club, with little offered in compensation. The Japan Times documents the human cost of the project.
From: Trump Emoluments: Foreign Government Payments Through Business Deals, Gifts, and Cryptocurrency
A 2-1 panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals vacates district court injunctions blocking DOGE access to OPM, Treasury, and Education Department systems. Judge Julius Richardson, a Trump appointee, cites the Supreme Court's SSA ruling to justify lifting restrictions across all three agencies. DOGE regains access to IRS taxpayer data and federal student loan records.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
In a separate case brought by unions and veterans (American Federation of Teachers v. Bessent), a 2-1 panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals vacates a Maryland district court's preliminary injunction blocking DOGE access to Treasury, OPM, and Education Department data. Judge Julius Richardson, a Trump appointee, writes that the district court 'abused its discretion.' The ruling does not disturb the New York case.
From: DOGE Associates Gained Access to $6 Trillion Treasury Payment System
A divided D.C. Circuit panel (Judges Katsas and Rao; Judge Pillard dissenting) vacates the preliminary injunction.
From: DOGE Shuts Down Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 'CFPB RIP'
A US logistics contractor tells CBS News that American security personnel at the sites were shooting at Palestinians who were not combatants. GHF denies it (CBS News).
The administration revokes clearances from 37 additional current and former national security officials, bringing the total to over 100 individuals targeted.
From: Weaponization of Security Clearances for Political Retaliation
The Appellate Division upholds Trump's liability and the injunctive relief but voids the nearly $500 million disgorgement as an excessive fine.
From: New York Civil Fraud Case: Liability Upheld, Nearly $500 Million Penalty Voided on Appeal
Judge William Orrick extends a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from cutting funding to 35+ sanctuary jurisdictions including Boston, Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles.
From: Punishing Sanctuary Jurisdictions: Federal Funding Cutoffs and Threats Against Entire States
President Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr have conducted a sustained campaign of threats against broadcast networks, with Trump calling for the FCC to revoke ABC and NBC licenses for critical coverage, Carr threatening license revocations over Iran war coverage, and ABC suspending Jimmy Kimmel's show for nearly a week in September 2025 after Carr said the situation could be handled 'the easy way or the hard way.' The FCC pressured Apple to remove the ICEBlock app, DHS demanded social media platforms suppress 'misinformation' about immigration, and the State Department issued visa restriction policies targeting foreign content moderation workers.
Chuck Borges, SSA's former chief data officer, files a formal whistleblower disclosure alleging that DOGE staffers improperly copied the NUMIDENT database — containing records of more than 300 million Americans — into a virtual database without following required security protocols. Borges was involuntarily resigned from government in August.
From: DOGE Employees Matched Social Security Data with Voter Rolls to Pursue Voter Fraud Claims
Chuck Borges, SSA's former chief data officer, files a formal whistleblower disclosure alleging DOGE staffers improperly copied the NUMIDENT database — containing records of 300+ million Americans — into a virtual database without following security protocols. Borges was involuntarily resigned from government and files a retaliation complaint.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
Amnesty International formally requests information from US Central Command (CENTCOM) and US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) regarding the strike on the migrant detention center.
From: US Airstrike Kills 61 to 68 African Migrants in Yemen Detention Center
Trump extends the executive order to NASA, NOAA, the National Weather Service, and the US Agency for Global Media.
USAGM implements a formal reduction in force eliminating the jobs of hundreds of Voice of America employees, representing a second wave of cuts beyond the initial March layoffs.
At approximately 10:00 PM Central time on Saturday, August 30, HHS begins contacting shelter care providers holding unaccompanied Guatemalan children, ordering them to prepare the children for immediate discharge and deportation. The timing — late Saturday night of a holiday weekend — appears designed to minimize the possibility of legal intervention.
From: Midnight Deportation of 76 Guatemalan Children: Labor Day Weekend Mass Removal Attempt
On the Labor Day weekend of 2025, the Trump administration attempted to deport 76 unaccompanied Guatemalan children by waking them at 1 AM and putting them on planes. A federal judge, awakened at 2:35 AM to address an emergency filing, blocked the flights. The government had planned to deport nearly 700 Guatemalan children total, in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
Amnesty International documented systematic torture, enforced disappearances, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment at the Everglades Detention Facility ('Alligator Alcatraz') and Krome North Service Processing Center in Florida. Detainees were held in a 2x2 foot cage called 'the box,' subjected to prolonged solitary confinement, and held without registration in any public tracking system, which Amnesty says facilitates incommunicado detention and, where whereabouts are denied, enforced disappearance.
The Executive Office for Immigration Review imposed rigid case completion goals on immigration judges, including 95% completion of non-detained cases in one year.
From: Deportation Traps at Immigration Court Hearings and Systematic Denial of Due Process
The largest single deportation flight to Haiti carried 132 people, bringing the total to 295 deported since inauguration.
From: Deportations to Haiti Despite Gang Control and Humanitarian Collapse
Since September 2, 2025, the US military has conducted at least 69 strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean under Operation Southern Spear, killing at least 231 people by CBS News' count as of September 2026. The very first strike included a 'double tap' follow-up attack that killed shipwrecked survivors clinging to wreckage.
Judge Sooknanan issues a broader temporary restraining order blocking deportation of all unaccompanied Guatemalan children in US custody who do not have deportation orders, covering the nearly 700 children the government had planned to remove.
From: Midnight Deportation of 76 Guatemalan Children: Labor Day Weekend Mass Removal Attempt
In a 2-1 ruling, the Fifth Circuit rejected the argument that immigration constitutes an 'invasion' under the Act, stating the findings 'do not support that an invasion or a predatory incursion has occurred.'
From: Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to Accelerate Venezuelan Deportations
The first in a series of lethal strikes on suspected drug boats began, killing at least 95 people by December 2025 with no civilian harm review mechanisms in place.
From: Dismantlement of Pentagon Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Program
In the case over the Los Angeles deployment, Judge Charles Breyer ruled the administration 'willfully' violated the Posse Comitatus Act through 'a top-down, systemic effort to use military troops to execute various sectors of federal law.'
From: Military Deployments at the US-Mexico Border and the Posse Comitatus Act
The final wave of forced separations took effect. Residual functions were nominally transferred to the State Department, though the institutional capacity to manage global development programs had been effectively destroyed.
From: Systematic Dismantlement of USAID and Global Humanitarian Consequences
On 3 September 2025 DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry opened "Camp 57", also called "Louisiana Lockup", an immigration detention unit for more than 400 men inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. The reopened unit had been used for disciplinary confinement of state prisoners; Prism reports it is the former "Camp J" solitary-confinement unit closed in 2018. Noem said Angola's notoriety was part of the message to detainees. A former detainee describes small dirty cells, flooding toilets and poor food, which ICE denies; he was deported to Laos in October 2025 despite a federal judge's temporary restraining order blocking his removal while he pressed a "substantial claim of U.S. citizenship" (AP). ACLU Louisiana says people are being held there indefinitely as a form of punishment that civil immigration detention cannot lawfully be.
In a subsequent hearing, the federal court questions DOJ attorneys about the attempted Labor Day deportation. The court notes the extraordinary timing and the violation of the TVPRA's requirement that children be allowed to appear before an immigration judge.
From: Midnight Deportation of 76 Guatemalan Children: Labor Day Weekend Mass Removal Attempt
A federal judge rules in favor of Harvard, blocking the administration from withholding $2+ billion in federal research grants and finding the freeze violates the First Amendment.
From: Coercion of Universities: Funding Freezes, Research Cuts, and Demands for Political Compliance
On 4 September 2025 the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control added three leading Palestinian human rights organisations, Al-Haq in Ramallah and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza City, to its sanctions list under Executive Order 14203, the order targeting people who assist the International Criminal Court's investigations of the US or its allies. The State Department announced the action as 'Sanctioning Foreign NGOs Directly Engaged in ICC's Illegitimate Targeting of Israel'. Human Rights Watch called the designations 'a cruel and vindictive effort to punish those simply advocating for victims of serious crimes'.
New York Attorney General Letitia James appeals the voiding of the penalty to the New York Court of Appeals.
From: New York Civil Fraud Case: Liability Upheld, Nearly $500 Million Penalty Voided on Appeal
The Board of Immigration Appeals issued a precedential decision ruling that immigration judges lack authority to conduct bond hearings for anyone present 'without admission,' regardless of how long they have lived in the United States.
From: Systematic Elimination of Bond Hearings and Indefinite Immigration Detention
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a final order setting aside Noem's decision.
From: Termination of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan Nationals
DHS launched Operation Midway Blitz in the Chicago area on 8 September 2025. Federal courts found that ICE had made warrantless arrests in breach of the 2022 Castañon Nava consent decree, after a senior DHS official had declared in a June 2025 email that ICE's obligations under it were terminated; the Seventh Circuit upheld the finding of substantial noncompliance and the decree's extension. Separately, Judge Sara Ellis restrained agents' use of tear gas, pepper balls and force against journalists and peaceful protesters, after incidents including tear gas fired without warning in Little Village. The Seventh Circuit curtailed parts of her orders and, after the plaintiffs dropped the case once the surge ended, vacated her preliminary injunction in March 2026.
In Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, the Supreme Court issues an unsigned order staying a district-court order that barred immigration stops based on apparent race or ethnicity, language, location and occupation. Justice Kavanaugh's concurrence says apparent ethnicity may be a 'relevant factor' among others; Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson dissent.
From: Systematic Racial Profiling in Immigration Enforcement and Wrongful Detention of US Citizens
The DOJ announces it will not pursue 54 pending regulatory actions, including two ADA rulemakings on accessible equipment and accessible routes.
On September 12, 2025, during Operation Midway Blitz, an ICE agent shot and killed Silverio Villegas González, a 38-year-old Mexican cook and father of two with no reported criminal record, in Franklin Park, Illinois. The Cook County medical examiner ruled the death a homicide; the bullet entered the back of his neck. DHS said an agent was 'seriously injured' after being 'dragged a significant distance,' but body-camera video obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times shows the agent telling local police he was 'dragged a little bit' and that his injuries were 'nothing major.' Illinois State Police opened an investigation in May 2026.
In Doe v. Noem (No. 25-1384), a First Circuit panel (Gelpí, Kayatta and Montecalvo) vacates Judge Talwani's order, holding that the plaintiffs had not made a strong showing that the termination exceeded the Secretary's discretion or was arbitrary and capricious. Constitutional and other claims not before the court remain pending.
From: Termination of CHNV Humanitarian Parole for 532,000 People
Immigration Judge Jamee Comans ruled Khalil deportable to Syria or Algeria on the ground that he willfully misrepresented organizational memberships when he applied for his green card.
From: Deportation Proceedings Against Mahmoud Khalil for Pro-Palestine Protest Activity
AFRICOM conducts airstrikes near Badhan, Somalia that reportedly kill a village chief. AFRICOM states the strike targeted an al-Shabaab weapons dealer but does not confirm the individual's identity or death.
From: Massive Escalation of US Airstrikes in Somalia with Zero Civilian Accountability
Physicians for Human Rights and Harvard researchers publish 'Cruelty Campaign,' documenting over 10,500 solitary confinement placements and systematic misuse of isolation in immigration detention.
From: Surge in Solitary Confinement in Immigration Detention
The Marshall Project publishes an investigation documenting how ICE is locking more immigrants in solitary confinement under the Trump administration.
From: Surge in Solitary Confinement in Immigration Detention
After FCC Chair Carr says on a podcast that the situation can be handled 'the easy way or the hard way,' station owners Nexstar and Sinclair pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! from their ABC affiliates over a monologue about the Charlie Kirk assassination, and ABC suspends the show. ABC announces on September 22 that it will return on September 23.
From: FCC Broadcast License Threats and Government Coercion of Media
In her first public remarks since the firing, reported on September 17, at Bard College McEntarfer vouches for 'the accuracy and independence of the work of the agency up until the moment I was fired' and warns that 'firing your chief statisticians for releasing data you do not like has serious economic consequences' (The Guardian).
The complaint attaches an 18 September 2025 version of the policy and a 6 October 2025 revision (Clearinghouse docket).
The US vetoes another Gaza ceasefire resolution at the Security Council's 10,000th meeting. Amnesty International calls it 'a greenlight for Israel's campaign of annihilation.'
From: Repeated US Vetoes of UN Security Council Gaza Ceasefire Resolutions
Trump states that networks covering him negatively should 'maybe' have their licenses revoked, deferring the decision to his FCC chairman appointee.
From: FCC Broadcast License Threats and Government Coercion of Media
NOTUS reports that the DOJ Public Integrity Section has gone from 36 full-time lawyers in January 2025 to two, and has lost all but one of more than a dozen paralegals. The requirement that U.S. attorneys consult the section on campaign-finance, patronage and election-corruption cases was suspended in June 2025, and, as The New York Times reported in May 2025, the FBI's elite public corruption squad was shut down. DOJ says it 'takes public corruption seriously'.
From: Weaponization of the Department of Justice: Retaliatory Investigations and Prosecutions
Human Rights Watch publishes a comprehensive report documenting how US third-country deportation agreements with African nations including Rwanda, Eswatini, Ghana, South Sudan, and others expose deportees to arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and refoulement.
From: Secret Cameroon Deportation Agreement and Torture of Deportees
HRW publishes a detailed report finding that the US expulsion deals with Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda, and South Sudan violate international human rights law, calling the agreements 'opaque' and dangerous.
From: Third-Country Deportations to Rwanda, Ghana, and South Sudan
Foreign Policy publishes an in-depth report on the political and legal controversy surrounding Ghana's acceptance of US deportees, including opposition challenges and civil society pushback.
From: Third-Country Deportations to Rwanda, Ghana, and South Sudan
Federal agencies begin contacting hundreds of previously fired employees and asking them to return to work, acknowledging that critical functions were degraded by the mass terminations. Many former employees decline or have already found other employment.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
A federal judge concluded the administration's notice failure violated the Inspector General Act while leaving broader remedy questions unresolved.
From: Mass Firing of Inspectors General Across Federal Government
Trump issues National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, directing the Joint Terrorism Task Forces to investigate and prosecute political opposition under the framework of 'domestic terrorism.' The memorandum specifically targets anti-fascism and opposition to capitalism.
Former FBI Director James Comey is indicted by Lindsey Halligan, a former Trump defense lawyer serving as interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
From: Weaponization of the Department of Justice: Retaliatory Investigations and Prosecutions
Trump announces he is sending troops to 'war ravaged Portland' to protect immigration facilities from 'domestic terrorists', 'authorizing Full Force, if necessary'. 200 Oregon National Guard members are federalised, and the State of Oregon and the City of Portland sue to block it (OPB).
From: Illegal National Guard Deployments to Los Angeles and Attempted Deployment to Chicago
The administration's 20-point Gaza peace plan states: 'No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return.'
From: Trump Proposes Forcible Displacement of 2.3 Million Palestinians from Gaza
The White House withdraws the nomination of E.J. Antoni as BLS commissioner and says another nominee will be announced (CNN).
The full Fifth Circuit agreed to rehear the case and vacated the panel's preliminary injunction.
From: Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to Accelerate Venezuelan Deportations
After a two-week trial, Judge William Young (D. Mass.) found that officials pursued a policy of arresting, detaining and deporting noncitizen students and faculty for pro-Palestinian speech, in violation of the First Amendment.
From: Deportation Proceedings Against Mahmoud Khalil for Pro-Palestine Protest Activity
The deadline for abolishing all USAID overseas positions passed. US development assistance infrastructure in countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America was shuttered.
From: Systematic Dismantlement of USAID and Global Humanitarian Consequences
FBI Director Kash Patel cuts the bureau's relationship with the SPLC after a push from right-wing allies of the administration, calling it a 'partisan smear machine' over its hate-group listings.
From: DOJ Indicts Southern Poverty Law Center Over Its Paid-Informant Program (April 2026)
DHS pressures Apple to remove the ICEBlock app and confirms the government is communicating with social media platforms to suppress immigration-related content it considers misinformation.
From: FCC Broadcast License Threats and Government Coercion of Media
Trump sets the annual refugee ceiling at 7,500 — the lowest in modern US history, down from 125,000 under the previous administration. Afrikaners are the only population specifically prioritized for the majority of these slots.
From: White Afrikaner Refugee Program: 1,648 of 1,651 US Refugees Are White South Africans
Cuba experiences worsening blackouts of up to 20 hours as fuel supplies dwindle under tightened sanctions. Hospitals begin suspending operations due to generator fuel shortages.
From: Intensified Cuba Sanctions Regime: Blackouts, Hospital Shutdowns, and Collective Punishment
The 19th News reports that ICE continues to detain pregnant and nursing immigrants in violation of its own federal policy directive.
From: Deportation and Medical Neglect of Pregnant Women in ICE Custody
ProPublica confirms at least 170 wrongful detentions of US citizens by ICE. The federal government does not maintain a comprehensive public count.
From: Systematic Racial Profiling in Immigration Enforcement and Wrongful Detention of US Citizens
Data reveals the DOE inspector general opened 45 whistleblower-retaliation investigations in FY2025 compared to 5 the previous year — a 900% increase indicating both rising retaliation and willingness to report despite risks.
From: Dismantlement of Whistleblower Protections and Government Oversight Infrastructure
Despite dropped criminal charges, ICE deported Guevara to El Salvador -- the country he had fled in 2004 after receiving death threats for his journalism work.
From: Systematic Attacks on Press Freedom: Journalist Arrests, Detention, and Deportation
In Noem v. National TPS Alliance, the Supreme Court allowed the termination to proceed, effectively de-documenting approximately 350,000 Venezuelans.
From: Termination of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan Nationals
ICE stops paying contractors providing medical care in detention facilities after the Department of Veterans Affairs terminates a longstanding agreement to process medical reimbursement claims. The payment halt is expected to last until April 2026.
From: Record ICE Detention Deaths and Medical Care Payment Halt
On October 4, 2025, in Chicago, Border Patrol agent Charles Exum fired five rounds at US citizen Marimar Martinez, wounding her in the arm and legs; she survived. DHS said she 'rammed' agents who were 'boxed in by 10 cars' and called her a 'domestic terrorist,' and she was charged with federal assault offences. Surveillance video showed no vehicles in front of or to the left of the agent's car. Prosecutors dropped all charges on November 20, 2025. Evidence later released with a judge's permission included an agent-drawn diagram showing three vehicles her lawyer says did not exist, and texts in which Exum wrote: 'I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.'
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut issues a temporary restraining order blocking the federalisation of 200 Oregon Guard members, finding that September protest activity 'generally did not involve violence against federal property or personnel' and writing: 'This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.' The administration appeals to the Ninth Circuit (OPB).
From: Illegal National Guard Deployments to Los Angeles and Attempted Deployment to Chicago
Axios reports that immigrants nationwide are being placed in solitary confinement for weeks, with the practice escalating across multiple facilities.
From: Surge in Solitary Confinement in Immigration Detention
Judge Jeffrey Cummings finds ICE failed to substantially comply with the consent decree through warrantless arrests, extends the decree and orders retraining and reporting (ABC7 Chicago; Seventh Circuit).
NPR publishes an in-depth report documenting the termination of federal funding for tribes to transition to clean energy, including the impact on the Hopi Nation and other tribes that had been planning renewable energy projects to replace coal-dependent economies.
Judge Sara Ellis issues a temporary restraining order limiting tear gas, pepper balls and force against journalists and peaceful protesters and requiring visible ID (WBEZ).
New York AG Letitia James is indicted on bank fraud and false statements charges. Her lawyers argue the case is vindictive prosecution to punish her for investigating and suing Trump.
From: Weaponization of the Department of Justice: Retaliatory Investigations and Prosecutions
NPR reports that New Orleans is the next city in Trump's expanding National Guard deployment pattern, following Los Angeles and attempts to deploy to Chicago and Oregon.
From: Illegal National Guard Deployments to Los Angeles and Attempted Deployment to Chicago
Political Research Associates publishes an investigation documenting the 'white nationalist myth that won't die' behind the Afrikaner refugee program, tracing the claims to far-right movements.
From: White Afrikaner Refugee Program: 1,648 of 1,651 US Refugees Are White South Africans
Democracy Hub files a lawsuit against the Ghanaian government, alleging the deportation agreement with the US is unconstitutional because it was not approved by parliament.
From: Third-Country Deportations to Rwanda, Ghana, and South Sudan
In autumn 2025 the Defense Department under Pete Hegseth conditioned Pentagon press credentials on reporters acknowledging a revised policy that gave officials broad discretion to suspend or revoke access over newsgathering. Defence trade publications including Military Times, Defense News and Breaking Defense refused to sign. In New York Times Co. v. Department of Defense, Judge Paul Friedman granted summary judgment on 20 March 2026, holding the policy unconstitutionally vague and viewpoint-discriminatory on a record of officials disparaging mainstream reporters while credentialing outlets that supported the administration; he vacated the provisions and issued a permanent injunction. On 9 April he found that "The Department did not comply with the Court's Order", having closed the press workspace and imposed an escort requirement the next business day. A divided D.C. Circuit panel stayed that order as to the escort requirement on 27 April, holding the escort rule outside the scope of the first judgment; on 30 June, in a new suit, Judge Friedman preliminarily enjoined the escort requirement as likely First Amendment retaliation.
Agents fire tear gas at a crowd in Little Village; an alderman says he heard no dispersal order, and video shown to the court indicates Bovino deployed at least two canisters (WTTW).
Chief Judge Shelly D. Dick of the US District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana issues a temporary restraining order explicitly prohibiting ICE from removing Chanthila Souvannarath, who has claimed US citizenship for over 20 years. ICE deports him to Laos anyway, in direct violation of the court order.
From: Pattern of Wrongful Deportations: US Citizens and Protected Individuals Removed Despite Court Orders
AP reports that Chanthila Souvannarath, held at the Angola facility, was deported to Laos although Judge Shelly Dick had issued a temporary restraining order blocking his removal pending his citizenship claim (AP).
From: 'Camp 57': ICE Detainees Held in a Former Disciplinary Unit Inside Angola Prison (September 2025–)
Amnesty International releases its investigation report 'It Is a Miracle We Survived,' concluding the strike was indiscriminate, found no evidence the facility was a military objective, and calling for investigation as a war crime.
From: US Airstrike Kills 61 to 68 African Migrants in Yemen Detention Center
Amnesty International publishes its investigation into the April 28 strike on the migrant detention center, concluding the strike must be investigated as a war crime. The Intercept reports the strike killed 61 immigrants and no combatants.
From: Operation Rough Rider: US Killed More Civilians in 52 Days Than in Previous 23 Years in Yemen
The administration set the FY 2026 refugee admissions ceiling at 7,500 -- the lowest in US history -- with priority allocated to white South African Afrikaners.
From: Indefinite Suspension of US Refugee Admissions Program and Record-Low Resettlement Cap
The Seventh Circuit grants mandamus against Judge Ellis's order requiring Bovino to appear in court every weekday, finding it put the court in the role of 'inquisitor' and infringed the separation of powers (Seventh Circuit).
Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, publicly states that the US attacks in the Caribbean and Pacific violate international human rights law and demands they be halted.
From: Operation Southern Spear: Lethal Drone Strikes on Caribbean and Pacific Drug Boats
The Trump administration created unofficial 'rocket dockets' to fast-track immigration cases, most notably targeting Somali nationals by rescheduling two-thirds of all open Somali cases to new judges on short notice. Mass hearings are conducted remotely with observers rarely allowed, and on the accelerated family dockets of 2018–19, 80% of completed cases ended in in absentia removal orders — deportation orders issued when respondents are absent, often due to inadequate notice. No comparable rate has been published for the 2026 Somali docket.
Federal courts split on the legality of the no-bond policy, with a California district court ruling it unlawful while the 5th Circuit endorsed the administration's position.
From: Systematic Elimination of Bond Hearings and Indefinite Immigration Detention
Education Secretary Linda McMahon announces plans to transfer billions in grant programs to other federal agencies, describing it as 'breaking up the federal education bureaucracy.' Employee reassignments to other agencies begin.
From: Education Department Dismantlement: $881M in Contracts Slashed, IES Eliminated, 50% Workforce Cut
The National Treasury Employees Union sues OPM under FOIA, seeking records related to the Schedule Policy/Career reclassification program after OPM fails to respond to the union's August FOIA request.
From: Schedule F Reclassification: Mass Removal of Civil Service Protections
Senator Ron Wyden demands a Senate vote on Trump's compliance with the Foreign Emoluments Clause. Multiple Senate resolutions are introduced (none has passed) condemning Trump's foreign business arrangements, the $TRUMP meme coin, and World Liberty Financial's entanglements with foreign governments.
From: Trump Emoluments: Foreign Government Payments Through Business Deals, Gifts, and Cryptocurrency
Judge Ellis certifies a class and grants a district-wide preliminary injunction, later supported by more than 170 pages of findings in which she found the government's witnesses not credible (Seventh Circuit, 5 March 2026).
The Trump administration fast-tracks rules granting FPS powers to arrest people off federal property, ban masks, and criminalize loud noises and obstruction near federal buildings.
In a 6-3 order granting a stay in Trump v. Orr, the Supreme Court allows the administration to enforce its policy prohibiting transgender and nonbinary Americans from obtaining passports with accurate gender markers. Justices Jackson, Kagan, and Sotomayor dissent.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Transgender Rights and Gender Identity Recognition
For beneficiaries without documentation extending to October 2, 2026, TPS and employment authorization terminated.
From: Termination of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan Nationals
Glen Casada, former Tennessee House Speaker convicted of bribery, is pardoned, allowing him to avoid his three-year prison sentence.
Proclamation 10989 grants a 'full, complete, and unconditional pardon' for conduct relating to alternate elector slates and 'efforts to expose voting fraud'; Giuliani is named in it (Federal Register).
From: Trump and Giuliani Target Fulton County Election Workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss (2020–2021)
Cronkite News documents the simultaneous surge in solitary confinement and weakening of DHS oversight, with the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties reduced from 150 to 22 staff.
From: Surge in Solitary Confinement in Immigration Detention
The comprehensive report documented systematic torture including sexual violence, regular physical beatings by guards, incommunicado detention, inadequate food, denial of hygiene and sanitation, limited healthcare access, and no recreational or educational activities.
From: Secret Deportation of 252 Venezuelans to CECOT Mega-Prison
Human Rights Watch publishes detailed documentation of torture of Venezuelan deportees at CECOT.
From: Forced Disappearances of Salvadoran Deportees in El Salvador's Prison System
Human Rights Watch and Cristosal publish their investigation documenting systematic torture at CECOT including sexual violence, beatings, inadequate food, and denial of medical care against the Venezuelan deportees.
From: Secret $6 Million Contract to Outsource Detention to El Salvador's CECOT
Judge Cummings orders the release of 13 class members and about 442 potential class members arrested during the surge (Seventh Circuit; ACLU of Illinois).
The full court declined to rehear the panel ruling, while several judges noted that Boasberg could continue his contempt investigation. Boasberg revived the proceedings later that month.
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
Government Executive reports that the final Schedule F regulations characterize existing civil service protections — in place since the 1883 Pendleton Act — as 'unconstitutional overcorrections.'
From: Schedule F Reclassification: Mass Removal of Civil Service Protections
Trump signs a proclamation granting preemptive pardons to 77 people associated with the fake electors scheme to overturn the 2020 election, including personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and former chief of staff Mark Meadows.
With a federal judge having permanently barred a Guard deployment in Portland, about 200 California National Guard soldiers sent to Portland are reported to be returning home and the federalised Oregon contingent is cut from 200 to 100 (CBS News).
From: Illegal National Guard Deployments to Los Angeles and Attempted Deployment to Chicago
At least 21 people, including multiple children and an elderly man, are reported killed in an airstrike and/or ground operations near Jamaame in southern Somalia. The reports do not attribute the deaths to US fire.
From: Massive Escalation of US Airstrikes in Somalia with Zero Civilian Accountability
The Chicago Sun-Times reports the medical examiner's homicide ruling and body-camera video in which the agent says he was 'dragged a little bit' with injuries that were 'nothing major.'
The Trump DOJ has systematically withheld, removed, and re-redacted Epstein files — including over 50 pages of FBI interviews containing sexual abuse allegations against Trump himself — while UN human rights experts warned the underlying crimes may constitute crimes against humanity. AG Bondi faces perjury allegations and a bipartisan congressional subpoena.
Trump says the lawmakers should be arrested and tried; the White House press secretary says Trump does not want members of Congress executed but that the message is 'perhaps punishable by law' (USA Today).
The US Attorney's office in Chicago drops all charges against Martinez (Chicago Sun-Times; CBS News).
The administration directs USCIS to review the cases of refugees admitted under President Biden (CBS News).
Before the shooting, a memo directs USCIS to review the cases of all refugees admitted under Biden (CBS News).
The Trump administration paid Equatorial Guinea $7.5 million in a secretive third-country deportation deal, sending 66 people on seven flights between November 2025 and August 2026, many of whom US immigration judges had granted withholding of removal or Convention Against Torture protection. Equatorial Guinea is rated 5 out of 100 by Freedom House and told deportees asylum was not available. All 29 people on the first two flights were later sent back to their countries of origin, according to Third Country Deportation Watch.
In November 2025 six Democratic lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds released a video telling service members they can refuse illegal orders. President Trump called it "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!" and said the lawmakers should be "ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL." The Pentagon opened a misconduct review of Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain; on 5 January 2026 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a formal letter of censure and began proceedings to reduce Kelly's retired grade and pension. Federal prosecutors sought to indict the lawmakers, but a D.C. grand jury declined, according to multiple sources cited by ABC News and NPR. On 12 February 2026 Judge Richard Leon enjoined the censure, finding the actions likely retaliation for protected speech.
GHF announces it is ending its mission in Gaza, citing the October ceasefire (Al Jazeera).
OPM Director claims 'DOGE doesn't exist' as a formal government entity while acknowledging that approximately 317,000 federal employees were removed from the workforce during its period of operation, representing the largest federal workforce reduction in modern history.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
Judge Cameron McGowan Currie dismisses both the Comey and James indictments, finding that prosecutor Lindsey Halligan was unlawfully appointed in violation of Section 546 and the Appointments Clause.
From: Weaponization of the Department of Justice: Retaliatory Investigations and Prosecutions
DHS terminated TPS for Burma/Myanmar, affecting approximately 3,670 people despite ongoing military junta violence.
From: Mass Termination of Temporary Protected Status Across 11 Countries
One Guard member is killed and another critically wounded; an Afghan national is arrested (CBS News).
The administration moves to roll back limits on deadly soot (fine particulate matter) pollution, which the EPA's own scientists have linked to tens of thousands of premature deaths annually.
Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia, who took over the case in November 2025 after Willis's disqualification, drops all charges against all remaining defendants, ending the prosecution without a trial or any ruling on the merits.
From: Georgia Election Interference: Trump Demands Secretary of State 'Find' 11,780 Votes
Peter Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia, who took over the case after Willis's disqualification, drops all charges against Trump and the remaining defendants, ending the case without a trial.
From: Georgia Election Interference: Raffensperger Call, Pressure to Find 11,780 Votes
After Willis's disqualification, Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia, takes over the case and drops all charges against Trump and the remaining defendants.
From: Georgia Call: Trump Pressured Secretary of State to 'Find' Votes to Overturn Election
After an Afghan national shot two National Guard members near the White House on 26 November 2025, killing one, the Trump administration paused all immigration applications from Afghan nationals, ordered a "full-scale, rigorous reexamination" of green cards held by people from 19 "countries of concern", and began reviewing every asylum grant approved under President Biden. President Trump announced he would "permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries" and "terminate" the status of millions admitted under Biden. The suspect had been granted asylum in 2025, under the Trump administration. Refugee advocates condemned measures that "punish an entire nationality based on the actions of one individual."
CNN publishes detailed reporting confirming the US military carried out a second strike killing survivors on a suspected drug boat.
From: Operation Southern Spear: Lethal Drone Strikes on Caribbean and Pacific Drug Boats
The administration begins widely using a court process called 'pretermission' to abruptly deny asylum claims and issue 'third-country' removal orders to thousands of noncitizens, bypassing full hearing procedures.
From: Immigration Rocket Dockets: Mass Fast-Tracked Hearings and In Absentia Removal Orders
US District Judge Brian Murphy rules the Trump administration's third-country removal policy violates federal immigration law and migrants' constitutional due process rights.
From: Third-Country Deportations to Rwanda, Ghana, and South Sudan
Human Rights Watch publishes a comprehensive analysis of the administration's campaign against the ICC, documenting how sanctions on individual judges and prosecutors are undermining the court's ability to function.
200 former DOJ employees publish a letter stating the administration has made a 'coordinated effort to undermine career staff,' erasing 'centuries of Justice Department experience.'
From: Dismantlement of Whistleblower Protections and Government Oversight Infrastructure
Francisco Gaspar-Andres, 48, of Guatemala, dies of liver and kidney failure after being held at Camp East Montana (Texas Tribune).
From: Camp East Montana: Beatings, Medical Neglect and Deaths at the ICE Tent Camp on Fort Bliss
The ACLU of DC, Democracy Forward, and Lieff Cabraser file a class-action lawsuit on behalf of former federal employees fired in the DEI purge. The suit alleges violations of the First Amendment, Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Civil Service Reform Act. Plaintiffs include workers who were fired despite having no current DEI role.
From: DOGE-Directed Elimination of Federal DEI Programs and Mass Firings of DEI Workers
Trump pardons Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, who were indicted in 2024 on bribery and related charges and awaiting trial. The pardon demonstrates the bipartisan nature of corruption clemency when it serves the administration's interests.
France 24 reports on a study revealing persistent danger from white phosphorus contamination in southern Lebanese communities, including risks to returning civilians and agricultural workers.
From: White Phosphorus Over Lebanese Civilian Areas and the US Supply Question
NYT Co. and Julian Barnes sue the Department of Defense, Hegseth and spokesman Sean Parnell under the First and Fifth Amendments and the APA (Clearinghouse).
Amnesty International publishes 'Torture and Enforced Disappearances in the Sunshine State' documenting systematic abuses.
From: Torture and Enforced Disappearances at 'Alligator Alcatraz' and Krome Detention Centers
The Pentagon inspector general's report finds that Hegseth put US troops at risk by sharing the quantity and strike times of manned US aircraft over hostile territory two to four hours before the strikes, on his personal phone, in violation of Pentagon rules on handling sensitive information. It finds he had the authority to declassify the material.
From: Signalgate: Top Officials Share Classified Strike Plans in Unsecured Group Chat
A grand jury declines to bring a new indictment against Letitia James. A second grand jury also declines, marking two consecutive failures to reindict.
From: Weaponization of the Department of Justice: Retaliatory Investigations and Prosecutions
The Intercept reports that survivors clung to wreckage for 45 minutes before the US military killed them, raising serious questions about deliberate targeting of shipwrecked persons.
From: Operation Southern Spear: Lethal Drone Strikes on Caribbean and Pacific Drug Boats
The Supreme Court granted certiorari, scheduling oral arguments for April 1, 2026.
From: Executive Order Attempting to Restrict Fourteenth Amendment Birthright Citizenship
The Spokesman-Review reports that as winter arrives, not all weather offices are ready. Despite the authorized rehiring, many positions remain unfilled, and institutional knowledge lost during the mass firings cannot be quickly replaced.
From: DOGE Guts National Weather Service: 30 Offices Lose Lead Meteorologists Ahead of Hurricane Season
The New York Immigration Coalition publishes a report documenting systematic anti-Latino patterns in ICE arrests in the NYC metropolitan area.
From: Systematic Racial Profiling in Immigration Enforcement and Wrongful Detention of US Citizens
200 former DOJ employees publish a letter stating the administration has made a 'coordinated effort' to undermine career staff and that the Civil Rights Division has been 'destroyed.'
From: Weaponization of the Department of Justice: Retaliatory Investigations and Prosecutions
DOJ issues a final rule, effective the same day, rescinding provisions of 28 CFR 42.104 that prohibited 'criteria or methods of administration which have the effect of subjecting individuals to discrimination,' and states it will enforce Title VI only against intentional discrimination.
From: Education and HHS Strip Disparate-Impact Protections From Civil Rights Rules Without Public Comment
Reporting reveals the full scope of the administration's demands: the ICC must guarantee it will not investigate Trump or his officials, drop Israeli investigations, end the Afghanistan probe, and member states must amend the Rome Statute to prohibit prosecution of non-signatory state nationals. The administration threatens to designate the ICC in its entirety if demands are not met.
The Seventh Circuit refuses to stay the decree's extension but stays most of the release order pending individual determinations (Seventh Circuit).
Judge Paula Xinis granted Abrego Garcia's habeas petition and ordered him released from immigration detention; he was released that evening.
From: Kilmar Abrego Garcia Deported to El Salvador Despite Withholding Order
DHS terminated TPS for Ethiopia, with an effective date of February 13, 2026.
From: Mass Termination of Temporary Protected Status Across 11 Countries
President Trump announces a 'TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE' of Venezuelan oil tankers. The US Navy begins seizing vessels. UN experts condemn the blockade as a violation of international law. A blockade is traditionally considered an act of war.
From: Operation Absolute Resolve: Unilateral US Military Intervention in Venezuela
The Trump administration imposed a naval blockade on Venezuelan oil tankers in December 2025, seizing vessels near the coast. UN experts declared it violated 'fundamental rules of international law,' calling a blockade a prohibited use of force and 'illegal armed aggression under the General Assembly's 1974 Definition of Aggression.' It was conducted without Congressional authorization or a UN Security Council mandate.
Cumulative reporting establishes at least 26 strikes and 95 deaths. Lawfare (crimes against humanity) and Human Rights Watch (extrajudicial killings under international human rights law) publish analyses.
From: Operation Southern Spear: Lethal Drone Strikes on Caribbean and Pacific Drug Boats
D.C. federal judge Royce Lamberth rules that Kari Lake had illegally served as Acting CEO of USAGM. The court declares that all actions taken by Lake since March 2025 are legally void and orders the agency to bring back hundreds of employees who had been on leave or fired.
Attorneys for the Trump administration argue before a three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit to lift the injunction blocking sanctuary city funding cuts.
From: Punishing Sanctuary Jurisdictions: Federal Funding Cutoffs and Threats Against Entire States
Naval forces began intercepting and seizing tankers in waters near Venezuela to enforce the blockade.
The ban is expanded to fully restrict entry from Burkina Faso, Laos, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Syria. People with Palestinian Authority travel documents are also added. Total affected countries reach 39.
From: Expanded Travel Ban Targeting Up to 39 Countries, Predominantly Muslim and African Nations
The en banc court vacates the August panel judgment and schedules argument for February 24, 2026; the April 2025 partial stay remains in effect.
From: DOGE Shuts Down Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 'CFPB RIP'
Jared Kushner withdraws the Trump Tower Belgrade application after weeks of mass protests, a Bloomberg corruption investigation, and growing political controversy. Kushner cites a desire not to 'divide' the people of Serbia.
From: Trump Emoluments: Foreign Government Payments Through Business Deals, Gifts, and Cryptocurrency
UN independent experts characterized the ship seizures as a 'maritime blockade' violating fundamental rules of international law.
The administration imposes fresh sanctions on Georgian judge Gocha Lordkipanidze and Mongolian judge Erdenebalsuren Damdin, bringing the total of sanctioned ICC officials to eleven. The sanctions target judges involved in rulings on Israeli war crime investigations.
The administration expanded sanctions to a total of 11 ICC officials, including judges, prosecutors, and senior staff.
From: Executive Order Sanctioning International Criminal Court Officials
Human Rights Watch submits evidence to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants documenting the pattern of abuses resulting from US third-country deportation agreements across Africa.
From: Secret Cameroon Deportation Agreement and Torture of Deportees
The DOJ releases a first batch of files past the 30-day deadline. Many documents contain extensive redactions, with hundreds of pages entirely blacked out. Critics say the names of powerful individuals and potential predators have been deliberately obscured.
From: Epstein Files: DOJ Withholds Evidence, UN Experts Warn of Crimes Against Humanity
Pentagon officials attempted to characterize the operation as a 'quarantine' rather than a 'blockade' to avoid the legal implications of an act of war.
ICC President Judge Tomoko Akane tells member state delegates at the annual Assembly of States Parties meeting that the court will 'never accept any kind of pressure,' and that 93 of 125 member states have reaffirmed their 'unwavering support' for the court.
Snopes independently verifies and reports on Amnesty International's findings.
From: Torture and Enforced Disappearances at 'Alligator Alcatraz' and Krome Detention Centers
District Judge Jill Parrish rules that Federico Reyes Vasquez must not be removed from the country while his court case is pending.
From: Pattern of Wrongful Deportations: US Citizens and Protected Individuals Removed Despite Court Orders
NPR analysis documented that in absentia removal orders in FY 2025 nearly tripled the previous year's total, exceeding 50,000, as immigrants stopped attending hearings out of fear of arrest.
From: Deportation Traps at Immigration Court Hearings and Systematic Denial of Due Process
STAT News publishes a major investigation into the state of American food safety after the funding cuts, examining the dismantlement of the FoodNet surveillance network and the broader collapse of federal food safety oversight.
From: FDA Food Safety Collapse: 3,500+ Staff Cut and Outbreak Investigation Capacity Gutted
Ruling on an emergency application (No. 25A443), the US Supreme Court declines 6-3 to stay a lower-court order blocking deployment of National Guard troops to Illinois over the governor's objections; Justice Kavanaugh concurs in the judgment, and Justices Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch dissent. The majority writes that 'the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois.'
From: Illegal National Guard Deployments to Los Angeles and Attempted Deployment to Chicago
One day after Judge Parrish's order, ICE deports Federico Reyes Vasquez, in what the judge later characterizes as 'direct violation of the court's Order.' The judge orders the administration to return him.
From: Pattern of Wrongful Deportations: US Citizens and Protected Individuals Removed Despite Court Orders
NPR documented that 1.6 million people lost their legal right to stay in the United States in 2025, the most rapid loss of legal immigration status in US history.
From: Mass Termination of Temporary Protected Status Across 11 Countries
On December 25-26, 2025, the United States conducted its first-ever airstrikes in Nigeria, striking targets in Sokoto State, with the Nigerian government's approval, against what both governments described as Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) and Lakurawa camps. A US defense official described over a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from the USS Paul Ignatius; Nigeria's information minister described 16 GPS-guided munitions fired from MQ-9 Reaper drones. Some local residents reported no history of ISIS presence, and at least four missile warheads failed to explode and landed in nearby villages.
President Trump publicly announces the strikes, stating the US military struck 'ISIS terrorist scum' in Nigeria. He frames the action as a response to persecution of Christians, though Sokoto is a predominantly Muslim region.
From: First-Ever US Airstrikes in Nigeria: Christmas Day Tomahawk Strikes on Sokoto
Reports emerge that at least four Tomahawk warheads failed to explode and landed in the villages of Offa, Zugurma, and Jabo, creating a direct hazard to civilian communities.
From: First-Ever US Airstrikes in Nigeria: Christmas Day Tomahawk Strikes on Sokoto
Representatives Sara Jacobs and Jason Crow demand an immediate Pentagon briefing on the strikes, questioning the legal authority, intelligence basis, and strategic rationale for the operation.
From: First-Ever US Airstrikes in Nigeria: Christmas Day Tomahawk Strikes on Sokoto
On 30 December 2025 US forces struck a convoy of three small boats in the eastern Pacific, killing three men on the first boat. Southern Command later confirmed that eight men from the other two boats 'abandoned their vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels'. The Coast Guard search was suspended without recovering anyone, and Airwars found the only search aircraft reached the area 45 hours after Southern Command reported people in the water, in nine-foot seas and 40-knot winds. Southern Command first reported only three deaths. In a September 2026 briefing note, the UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights found 'reasonable grounds to believe' that the campaign's attacks constituted crimes against humanity of murder.
Axios reports 2,285+ confirmed measles cases in 2025, the most in over 30 years. At least three people have died. The CDC had buried a measles forecast stressing the need for vaccinations.
From: HHS Dismantlement Under RFK Jr. During the Worst Measles Outbreak in 30 Years
A federal judge rejects Acting Director Vought's argument that he could effectively close a Congressionally-created agency without an act of Congress, ordering the CFPB to remain funded.
From: CFPB Dismantlement While Musk Launches Competing XMoney Payment Service
The Coast Guard says it is coordinating search and rescue for 'mariners in distress' and sending a C-130 with a survival raft. The same day another US strike kills five people on two more boats (CBS News).
A federal court formally ends the illegal federalization of the National Guard in California. Governor Newsom directs leadership to quickly send remaining soldiers home to their families. The court calls the deployment 'profoundly un-American.'
From: Illegal National Guard Deployments to Los Angeles and Attempted Deployment to Chicago
FEMA sends non-renewal notices to 50 CORE employees on New Year's Eve, with their positions ending in the first days of January 2026. The emails state their positions 'would not be renewed' and 'your services will no longer be needed.'
From: FEMA Dismantlement — Budget Cuts, Mass Layoffs, and Destruction of Disaster Response Capacity
With 31 deaths recorded during calendar year 2025 and December being the single deadliest month on record, ICE detention reaches its highest death toll and death rate since at least 2004.
From: Record ICE Detention Deaths and Medical Care Payment Halt
By year's end, 41% of ICE detainees have no criminal record, up from 6% in January. ICE's total detainee population reaches a record 73,000. Reports document chilling effects on healthcare, education, and access to social services in immigrant communities.
From: Rescission of ICE Sensitive Locations Policy — Churches, Schools, and Hospitals Open to Raids
The full expanded travel ban takes effect. The New York Immigration Coalition estimates 420,000 New Yorkers are at risk, and civil rights organizations file additional legal challenges.
From: Expanded Travel Ban Targeting Up to 39 Countries, Predominantly Muslim and African Nations
Early provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act begin implementation, including Medicaid work reporting requirements for expansion adults ages 19-64, with a compliance deadline of December 2026.
From: One Big Beautiful Bill: $1 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts and $295 Billion in SNAP Cuts
Despite court orders blocking key provisions, at least 15 states begin voluntarily implementing parts of the executive order. North Dakota ends grace periods for mail-in ballots; multiple states seek federal databases to check voter rolls for noncitizens.
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
Cumulative reporting establishes that approximately 300,000 federal positions have been eliminated or vacated through the combined effects of the Fork in the Road program, probationary firings, reductions in force, and attrition — a roughly 9% reduction of the federal civilian workforce.
From: DOGE-Directed Mass Firings and Forced Resignations of Federal Workers
CNN reports that DHS begins cutting FEMA disaster response staff as 2026 begins. The workforce has already dropped from 29,000 to approximately 23,000.
From: FEMA Dismantlement — Budget Cuts, Mass Layoffs, and Destruction of Disaster Response Capacity
The Washington Office on Latin America publishes its border update documenting the detention death toll and raising alarms about DHS funding and ICE warrant practices.
From: Record ICE Detention Deaths and Medical Care Payment Halt
CSIS, Council on Foreign Relations, and Responsible Statecraft publish analyses questioning why the US struck Sokoto specifically, noting the disconnect between the stated ISIS threat and local security dynamics.
From: First-Ever US Airstrikes in Nigeria: Christmas Day Tomahawk Strikes on Sokoto
NPR reports that the DOJ's failure to meet the mid-December deadline and the limited, heavily redacted initial release has fueled conspiracy theories. The DOJ identifies a forged letter purporting to be from Epstein to Larry Nassar alleging Trump's involvement, highlighting the chaos created by the incomplete disclosure.
From: Epstein Files: DOJ Withholds Evidence, UN Experts Warn of Crimes Against Humanity
Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, of Cuba, dies at Camp East Montana. The medical examiner rules his death a homicide by 'asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.' The autopsy states he became 'unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement.' ICE first said he died of 'medical distress', then that he had attempted suicide. HRW/ACLU witnesses said he had asked for medication in solitary and cried 'I can't breathe!'
From: Camp East Montana: Beatings, Medical Neglect and Deaths at the ICE Tent Camp on Fort Bliss
On January 3, 2026, the US Armed Forces launched Operation Absolute Resolve — bombing infrastructure across northern Venezuela, suppressing air defenses, and conducting a special operations raid on Maduro's compound in Caracas to capture President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. The operation was conducted without Congressional authorization or UN Security Council mandate. About 80 people were killed, including 32 Cuban military and security personnel, at least 23 to 43 Venezuelan soldiers and two or three civilians; seven US soldiers were wounded.
The naval blockade was overtaken by 'Operation Absolute Resolve,' a full military intervention including bombing and a special operations raid on Caracas.
Operation Absolute Resolve launched without the civilian harm infrastructure that would have assessed potential collateral damage.
From: Dismantlement of Pentagon Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Program
The UN Security Council holds an emergency session on the Venezuela intervention. Broad international condemnation from African, Asian, and Latin American governments.
From: Operation Absolute Resolve: Unilateral US Military Intervention in Venezuela
Chatham House, a leading international affairs think tank, publishes analysis concluding that the US capture of President Maduro and attacks on Venezuela have no justification in international law.
From: Operation Absolute Resolve: Unilateral US Military Intervention in Venezuela
Hegseth calls the video 'seditious' and starts retirement-grade proceedings that could reduce Kelly's retired grade and pay (CBS News).
CNN obtains documents from a FEMA planning exercise that envisions cutting the agency's workforce by 50%, including a 15% permanent staff reduction, 41% disaster staff cut, and 85% surge workforce cut.
From: FEMA Dismantlement — Budget Cuts, Mass Layoffs, and Destruction of Disaster Response Capacity
DHS announces what it describes as the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out, sending 2,000 ICE agents to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area.
From: ICE Agent Kills Renee Good, American Mother of Three, in Minneapolis
DHS announces the largest immigration enforcement operation ever conducted, sending 2,000 agents to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area.
The leaders of Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement affirming 'sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders' in direct response to the Greenland threats.
From: Military and Economic Threats Against Greenland and Panama Canal Sovereignty
ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shoots Renee Good, a 37-year-old US citizen and mother of three, during a massive immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. Video later contradicts the official self-defense narrative.
From: Trump Fires DHS Secretary Noem After Minneapolis ICE Killings; Mullin Confirmed as Replacement
ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shoots Renee Nicole Macklin Good, a 37-year-old American mother of three, during a massive immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis.
From: Federal Agents Kill ICU Nurse Alex Pretti During Minneapolis Immigration Protest
Thousands of Minneapolis residents take to the streets to protest the killing. Noem vows to send 'hundreds more' federal agents.
From: Federal Agents Kill ICU Nurse Alex Pretti During Minneapolis Immigration Protest
On January 7, 2026, ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Nicole Macklin Good, a 37-year-old American mother of three, during a massive immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. Video footage contradicted the official narrative that Good posed a lethal threat, and the Trump administration used the incident to threaten invoking the Insurrection Act against the city.
ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shoots Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old American mother of three, in Minneapolis. Video evidence contradicts government claims of self-defense.
Data shows 24,644 non-criminal detainees in ICE custody, up from 945 on January 26, 2025 — roughly a 25-fold increase in absolute numbers, reflecting the overall enforcement surge rather than this rescission alone.
From: Rescission of ICE Sensitive Locations Policy — Churches, Schools, and Hospitals Open to Raids
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem calls the protests leading up to the ICE shooting 'an act of domestic terrorism.'
From: Federal Agents Kill ICU Nurse Alex Pretti During Minneapolis Immigration Protest
After The Intercept reports the undercount, Southern Command confirms that eight more people from the convoy are dead. The search had been abandoned after several days and the men presumed dead (The Intercept).
Video footage from the ICE agent's phone is published, showing Good sitting calmly in her car, smiling and speaking to the agent moments before being shot. Security experts say the footage does not support the claim that the vehicle was being used as a weapon. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey states the video does not match the government's version of events.
From: ICE Agent Kills Renee Good, American Mother of Three, in Minneapolis
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension announces a formal investigation into the fatal shooting. DHS does not respond to questions about body camera footage.
From: ICE Agent Kills Renee Good, American Mother of Three, in Minneapolis
Kelly brings seven counts including First Amendment retaliation, Speech or Debate, separation of powers and due process (Clearinghouse).
Trump announces plans to deny federal funding to any states hosting sanctuary cities starting February 1, 2026 — expanding from city-level to state-level punishment.
From: Punishing Sanctuary Jurisdictions: Federal Funding Cutoffs and Threats Against Entire States
Victor Manuel Díaz, 36, of Nicaragua, is found unresponsive with fabric around his neck in mid-January; his autopsy has not been made public (Texas Tribune).
From: Camp East Montana: Beatings, Medical Neglect and Deaths at the ICE Tent Camp on Fort Bliss
On January 14, 2026, during Operation Metro Surge, ICE officer Christian Castro chased a DoorDash driver to his north Minneapolis duplex and fired a shot through the closed front door, hitting the driver's roommate, Venezuelan immigrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, in the leg. Federal prosecutors charged Sosa-Celis and the driver with assaulting Castro with a shovel and broom handle. Those charges were dropped after surveillance video contradicted the officers' account. In May 2026 Hennepin County charged Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime. On September 3, 2026, a federal grand jury indicted him on six counts of making false statements to the FBI, the first Justice Department prosecution of an officer for conduct during the Minneapolis surge. The federal case does not include a civil rights charge; a federal prosecutor who had reportedly told the victim's lawyers that DOJ officials blocked one was fired as the indictment became public.
France 24 Observers team publishes investigation confirming widespread Israeli use of white phosphorus across southern Lebanon, documenting 191 attacks covering over 918 hectares.
From: White Phosphorus Over Lebanese Civilian Areas and the US Supply Question
Under a secret agreement, the US deported 17 people from 9 African countries to Cameroon in January-February 2026, including asylum seekers and a stateless person. Cameroonian authorities immediately detained the deportees with no legal basis, and 15 remained detained in Yaoundé as of February 20. Journalists and a lawyer who went to the detention compound were arrested. Human Rights Watch says Cameroon is unsafe for deportations because of its record of torture in detention, and that the US violated international law by sending people there.
The Democracy Defenders Fund identifies that over 70 previously released Epstein files have been secretly pulled from the DOJ database and reposted with additional or modified redactions, with no public notice, explanation, or audit trail.
From: Epstein Files: DOJ Withholds Evidence, UN Experts Warn of Crimes Against Humanity
Immigration lawyers representing Somali clients begin reporting that cases with no future hearing, or with hearings scheduled years away, are suddenly being rescheduled for hearings in February and March 2026. The pattern is identified as an unofficial 'Somali rocket docket.'
From: Immigration Rocket Dockets: Mass Fast-Tracked Hearings and In Absentia Removal Orders
Trump posts on Truth Social threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act against Minnesota protesters, calling them 'insurrectionists.' 3,000 ICE agents are deployed in 'Operation Metro Surge.'
In a 2-1 decision the Third Circuit vacated the district court's judgment, ruling that Khalil must move through the immigration-court system before challenging his deportation in federal court. It did not rule on the constitutionality of the deportation.
From: Deportation Proceedings Against Mahmoud Khalil for Pro-Palestine Protest Activity
The UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers demanded the withdrawal of sanctions against ICC judges, calling them an unprecedented attack on international judicial independence.
From: Executive Order Sanctioning International Criminal Court Officials
The administration announces withdrawal from the UNFCCC, IPCC, and 64 other international organizations — removing the US from the entire foundational architecture of international climate governance. The National Security Archive calls this a break with bipartisan consensus dating to 1992.
A federal judge places limits on federal agents' conduct in Minneapolis as protests cool.
NPR reports that FEMA is proceeding with massive job cuts. Senate lawmakers attempt to intervene to stem staff reductions at FEMA and CISA but face administration resistance.
From: FEMA Dismantlement — Budget Cuts, Mass Layoffs, and Destruction of Disaster Response Capacity
CNN publishes reports and video evidence showing how ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Good, establishing a minute-by-minute timeline that further undermines the official narrative of self-defense.
From: ICE Agent Kills Renee Good, American Mother of Three, in Minneapolis
Trump announced a 10% tariff from February 1, 2026, rising to 25% on June 1, on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland, which had taken part in a military exercise in Greenland, unless Denmark agreed to sell Greenland to the US.
From: Military and Economic Threats Against Greenland and Panama Canal Sovereignty
CBS News reports surveillance video showing no vehicles boxing in the agent's car, and Exum's text: 'I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes.'
Analysis shows over half of 88 individual pardons through January 2026 went to white-collar criminals. Campaign Legal Center publishes 'Inside the Pardon Playbook' analyzing the pattern of clemency abuse.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump ruled out using military force to acquire Greenland and later that day called off the tariff threat, citing a 'framework of a future deal' with NATO.
From: Military and Economic Threats Against Greenland and Panama Canal Sovereignty
After appointing Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland in December 2025, Trump in mid-January 2026 announced tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland over their participation in an Arctic exercise, and said it 'may be a choice' between seizing Greenland and preserving NATO. On January 21, at Davos, Trump rules out using military force to take Greenland, announces a 'framework of a future deal' with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and withdraws the tariff threats.
From: Annexation Threats: Greenland, Panama Canal, Canada — Territorial Expansionism
A second flight delivers additional deportees to Equatorial Guinea, bringing the total to 29 people from nine countries. Deportees include individuals from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Mauritania, Angola, Congo, Chad, Georgia, Ghana, and Nigeria.
RFK Jr.'s new CDC deputy Ralph Abraham downplays the significance as the US faces losing its measles elimination status. To maintain the status, the US must prove measles has not circulated continuously for a year — a threshold now in jeopardy.
From: HHS Dismantlement Under RFK Jr. During the Worst Measles Outbreak in 30 Years
Judge Young declared the policy unconstitutional and set it aside under the Administrative Procedure Act. The government appealed to the First Circuit.
From: Deportation Proceedings Against Mahmoud Khalil for Pro-Palestine Protest Activity
The United States formally exits the World Health Organization. The WHO says the US has not paid the $260 million it owes for 2024 and 2025; HHS disputes that payment is required.
From: US Withdrawal from the World Health Organization With 2024–25 Dues Unpaid
The Social Security Administration publicly discloses that DOGE employees secretly and improperly shared sensitive personal data in 2025. Government lawyers reveal that two SSA DOGE employees were referred to the US Office of Special Counsel for potential Hatch Act violations over their coordination with the political advocacy group.
From: DOGE Employees Matched Social Security Data with Voter Rolls to Pursue Voter Fraud Claims
The Social Security Administration publicly discloses that DOGE employees secretly and improperly shared sensitive personal data in 2025. The disclosure reveals the voter data agreement, Cloudflare data sharing, Hatch Act referrals, and the scope of unauthorized access. NPR reports on the full timeline of DOGE's improper data access and sharing.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
A second US citizen, Alex Pretti, is killed by federal agents during continued immigration enforcement operations in the Minneapolis area.
From: Trump Fires DHS Secretary Noem After Minneapolis ICE Killings; Mullin Confirmed as Replacement
DHS Secretary Noem labels the Minneapolis protests following the two killings as 'domestic terrorism' and announces deployment of 'hundreds more' agents to the city.
From: Trump Fires DHS Secretary Noem After Minneapolis ICE Killings; Mullin Confirmed as Replacement
On January 24, 2026, federal agents killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, during protests in Minneapolis that erupted after ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good on January 7. Pretti's death was the second killing of a U.S. citizen by federal agents during the Minneapolis immigration enforcement operation, escalating calls for accountability and contributing to the eventual removal of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
Customs and Border Protection officers fatally shoot Alex Jeffrey Pretti, making him the second US citizen killed by federal immigration agents in January 2026.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul publicly calls on Secretary Noem to resign, stating she cannot remain in charge after two civilians are killed.
From: Federal Agents Kill ICU Nurse Alex Pretti During Minneapolis Immigration Protest
Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz of the District of Minnesota notes that ICE violated 96 court orders across 74 cases since January 1, 2026, a tally he calls likely a substantial undercount.
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
Trump issues executive order declaring a purported national emergency and authorizing tariffs on imports of oil from any third country selling to Cuba, effectively creating a secondary sanctions blockade.
From: Intensified Cuba Sanctions Regime: Blackouts, Hospital Shutdowns, and Collective Punishment
ICE was holding around 170 children on an average day, a more than sixfold increase from the Biden-era average of 25 per day.
From: Family Separations and Prolonged Child Detention Under Immigration Enforcement
The DOJ releases a major tranche including over 3 million pages, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images. However, the DOJ identified over 6 million responsive pages and withheld roughly 2.5 million, raising questions about compliance with the law. The DOJ claims it has met its legal obligations.
From: Epstein Files: DOJ Withholds Evidence, UN Experts Warn of Crimes Against Humanity
Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was arrested by federal agents on charges of conspiracy and interfering with First Amendment rights of worshipers, stemming from his coverage of a January 18 protest at a church where an ICE official served as pastor.
From: Systematic Attacks on Press Freedom: Journalist Arrests, Detention, and Deportation
US District Judge Margaret Garnett rules Luigi Mangione cannot face the death penalty, dismissing two counts from his federal indictment — including the murder-through-use-of-a-firearm count — finding the underlying stalking statutes are not 'crimes of violence' under federal law.
From: Federal Death Penalty Expansion and Discriminatory Application
Data for October 2025 through January 2026 shows that 1,648 of 1,651 refugees admitted to the US were from South Africa — 99.8% of all admissions. Only 3 refugees from the entire rest of the world were accepted during this period.
From: White Afrikaner Refugee Program: 1,648 of 1,651 US Refugees Are White South Africans
Analysis reveals that 66.25% of all Somali noncitizens with open immigration court cases have been scheduled for hearings with new judges on short notice. Cases previously unscheduled in Minneapolis suddenly have court dates.
From: Immigration Rocket Dockets: Mass Fast-Tracked Hearings and In Absentia Removal Orders
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. indefinitely paused the termination of TPS for Haiti, finding DHS's decision 'arbitrary and capricious' and in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
From: Deportations to Haiti Despite Gang Control and Humanitarian Collapse
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. issued an order indefinitely pausing the termination of TPS for Haiti, finding the decision 'arbitrary and capricious.'
From: Mass Termination of Temporary Protected Status Across 11 Countries
NPR reports that Abrego Garcia's case was thought to be unique but that 'the problem is getting worse,' documenting a pattern of wrongful deportations accelerating in scope and frequency.
From: Pattern of Wrongful Deportations: US Citizens and Protected Individuals Removed Despite Court Orders
Congress allocated $50 billion for foreign aid, but the institutional infrastructure to deliver the aid had already been dismantled, creating a gap between appropriated funds and delivery capacity.
From: Systematic Dismantlement of USAID and Global Humanitarian Consequences
CNN reports a Lancet study projecting 9.4 million additional deaths by 2030 from global aid cuts by multiple donors, including the US.
From: Systematic Dismantlement of USAID and Global Humanitarian Consequences
On February 6, 2026, President Trump signed Executive Order 14383, 'Establishing an America First Arms Transfer Strategy,' which fundamentally reordered US arms export priorities to elevate commercial and economic objectives at the expense of human rights, international humanitarian law, and strategic considerations. The administration subsequently invoked emergency powers to bypass congressional review for $23+ billion in arms sales to Gulf states.
OPM publishes the final Schedule Policy/Career rule, which goes into effect 30 days later. The rule strips appeal rights, removes whistleblower protections, and allows removal for 'subversion of presidential directives.'
From: Schedule F Reclassification: Mass Removal of Civil Service Protections
NPR publishes an investigation documenting the Somali rocket docket, reporting that hearings are conducted remotely with observers rarely allowed. Immigrants are in Minnesota while judges and government attorneys are in other states.
From: Immigration Rocket Dockets: Mass Fast-Tracked Hearings and In Absentia Removal Orders
An immigration judge terminates removal proceedings against Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts PhD student who was detained for over a month. The termination effectively acknowledges the lack of valid grounds for her deportation.
From: Political Prisoners: Detention of Campus Activists for Pro-Palestinian Speech
A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel stayed the district court's order that had paused TPS terminations for Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal.
From: Mass Termination of Temporary Protected Status Across 11 Countries
An immigration judge terminates removal proceedings against Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts doctoral student detained by the Trump administration, due to a procedural misstep by government attorneys.
From: Mass Student Visa Revocations Targeting Pro-Palestine Protesters
ABC News, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, reports that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington failed to secure an indictment of the six lawmakers; NPR later reports the same from a single source. The charges sought are not known.
After Judge Georgia Alexakis permits Martinez to release it, the US Attorney's office releases texts and documents, including a diagram of vehicles her lawyer says did not exist and Exum's claim of support from 'Chief Bovino, Chief Banks, Sec Noem and El Jefe himself'; her lawyers present their analysis the next day (Chicago Sun-Times).
Reporting reveals AG Bondi has directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty in federal cases where Biden-era DOJ officials had previously declined to pursue capital punishment, reversing individualized prosecutorial decisions.
From: Federal Death Penalty Expansion and Discriminatory Application
Executive Order 14383 is published in the Federal Register, making its provisions official and establishing the new framework for all US arms transfer decisions.
From: America First Arms Transfer Strategy: Human Rights Safeguards Removed From Weapons Exports
Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before the House Judiciary Committee that there is 'no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime' in the Epstein files. This testimony is later contradicted by the discovery of withheld FBI interview memos.
From: Epstein Files: DOJ Withholds Evidence, UN Experts Warn of Crimes Against Humanity
The EPA formally rescinds the 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare, removing the legal foundation for all federal regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Environmental groups and states immediately file legal challenges.
An ICE inspection conducted February 10-12, 2026 documents 'impermissible and unreported uses of force' (HRW). The HRW/ACLU report describes the resulting April 2026 internal investigation as identifying unreported uses of force, medical neglect, failures to conduct required suicide and wellness checks, inadequate sexual abuse prevention, and unanswered grievances.
From: Camp East Montana: Beatings, Medical Neglect and Deaths at the ICE Tent Camp on Fort Bliss
The court grants a preliminary injunction barring defendants from implementing or giving effect to the censure letter (Clearinghouse; NPR).
In a letter to tribal leaders, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem states that ICE does not target Native Americans and has not conducted operations on tribal lands — a claim contradicted by the Navajo Nation's documented complaints and reports from tribal members and state legislators.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee minority publishes 'At What Cost: Inside the Trump Administration's Secret Deportation Deals,' documenting the $7.5 million payment to Equatorial Guinea and the broader $40 million third-country deportation program.
In a letter to Congress, AG Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche insist that no records were withheld or redacted 'on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.'
From: Epstein Files: DOJ Withholds Evidence, UN Experts Warn of Crimes Against Humanity
Reporting revealed that nine migrants had been deported to Cameroon in secret in January, and a second group arrived in February.
From: Secret Cameroon Deportation Agreement and Torture of Deportees
The Star Tribune reports that fast-tracked asylum hearings for Somali refugees are being 'held in secret,' with the remote proceedings effectively closed to public observation despite immigration courts nominally being open.
From: Immigration Rocket Dockets: Mass Fast-Tracked Hearings and In Absentia Removal Orders
Four journalists, including three working for the Associated Press, were detained while reporting on a facility in Cameroon where Trump administration deportees are held.
From: Systematic Attacks on Press Freedom: Journalist Arrests, Detention, and Deportation
Independent experts mandated by the UN Human Rights Council issue a statement that a number of the acts documented in the Epstein files, which could amount to sexual slavery, trafficking and torture, 'may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity.' They describe it as a 'global criminal enterprise' and demand prosecution.
From: Epstein Files: DOJ Withholds Evidence, UN Experts Warn of Crimes Against Humanity
Food Navigator-USA reports that the FDA has lost 3,859 employees in 2025 and 473 so far in 2026, with the USDA experiencing parallel losses. The cumulative impact on food safety oversight is described as unprecedented.
From: FDA Food Safety Collapse: 3,500+ Staff Cut and Outbreak Investigation Capacity Gutted
Four journalists and a lawyer representing the detainees were arrested outside the Yaoundé compound where deportees were held. Media reports allege at least one journalist was beaten and that equipment was confiscated before their release.
From: Secret Cameroon Deportation Agreement and Torture of Deportees
A directive dated 18 February 2026 from acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and USCIS Director Joseph Edlow instructs DHS to treat a refugee's one-year anniversary in the United States as "a mandatory re-vetting point": refugees who have not yet become permanent residents must "return" to custody for inspection or be "returned" through enforcement action, and may be held for the duration of the review. The memo reverses longstanding ICE policy that failure to adjust status within a year was not, by itself, a reason to detain. Six refugees and two Massachusetts resettlement agencies sued on 27 February 2026, saying the policy permits warrantless arrest of people the US itself vetted and admitted.
The court in Maldonado Bautista ordered the government to stop denying bond hearings to immigrants who entered without permission and are not otherwise subject to mandatory detention.
From: Systematic Elimination of Bond Hearings and Indefinite Immigration Detention
Newsweek reports ICE records, obtained by American Oversight through FOIA, showing an HSI agent killed Martinez; his death had been reported locally without identifying federal involvement.
HRW reported that Cameroon was arbitrarily detaining the deportees, that 15 remained detained in Yaoundé, and that journalists who tried to interview them had been detained and abused. It said the US violated international law by deporting people to a country with risks of torture and refoulement, and called for their return and an end to third-country deportation agreements.
From: Secret Cameroon Deportation Agreement and Torture of Deportees
In Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, the Supreme Court holds 6-3 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. The administration announces a temporary 10% tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974.
From: 2025 Tariff Shock: Sweeping Import Taxes Trigger Global Trade Crisis
Joshua Orta, the passenger in Martinez's car, who told investigators the car was 'just slowly moving' when agents fired, dies in an unrelated car crash in San Antonio (Scripps News).
Cuba's Health Minister reports that the healthcare system is being 'pushed to the brink,' with 5 million chronically ill patients affected, including thousands of cancer patients whose treatments face disruption.
From: Intensified Cuba Sanctions Regime: Blackouts, Hospital Shutdowns, and Collective Punishment
An NPR investigation finds the DOJ withheld over 50 pages of FBI interviews containing an unadjudicated allegation that around 1983, Epstein introduced a 13-year-old girl to Trump, who subsequently sexually assaulted her. The documents were missing from the public Epstein Library database.
From: Epstein Files: DOJ Withholds Evidence, UN Experts Warn of Crimes Against Humanity
The US District Court for the District of Massachusetts declares the Department of Homeland Security's third-country removal policy unlawful and sets it aside. Despite this ruling, deportees already sent to Equatorial Guinea remain stranded.
House Oversight Ranking Member Robert Garcia sends a letter to AG Bondi demanding answers about the suppression of documents alleging Trump's sexual abuse of a minor. Oversight Democrats confirm the FBI interviewed the survivor four times, but only one interview was published. Congressional Republicans also announce they will investigate the missing files.
From: Epstein Files: DOJ Withholds Evidence, UN Experts Warn of Crimes Against Humanity
Six refugees, Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts and the International Institute of New England, represented by Democracy Forward and IRAP, sue under the APA, the INA and the Fourth and Fifth Amendments (NHPR/GBH).
When US military operations against Iran begin on February 28, 2026, civilian harm mitigation staffing has already been cut by about 90%.
From: Pentagon IG: Hegseth Dismantled Civilian Harm Safeguards During Active War (May 2026)
President Trump orders Operation Epic Fury, launching nearly 900 airstrikes against Iran in the first 12 hours. The war begins without congressional authorization.
From: U.S. Strike Destroys Iran's B1 Bridge, Killing Civilians on Nowruz Holiday
The United States and Israel launch coordinated military strikes against Iran. Bushehr nuclear power plant is in the conflict zone from the outset.
From: Repeated Strikes Near Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant
The United States and Israel launch coordinated military strikes against Iran. The war begins without self-defense justification, while negotiations were ongoing.
From: Defense Secretary Hegseth Declares 'No Quarter, No Mercy' for Iran
US and Israeli forces launch nearly 900 airstrikes across Iran, targeting military sites, leadership, and infrastructure. The scale of bombardment in urban areas and near historic sites raises immediate concerns about collateral damage to cultural heritage.
From: Damage to Iranian UNESCO World Heritage Sites in US-Israeli Airstrikes
The United States and Israel launch Operation Epic Fury against Iran. Hezbollah launches retaliatory strikes on Israel, and Israel responds with a renewed large-scale military offensive across Lebanon.
From: 2026 Lebanon War — US Weapons Complicity in Mass Civilian Casualties and White Phosphorus Attacks
President Trump threatened to 'obliterate' Iran's power plants during the 2026 Iran war, escalating to a promise to destroy 'every bridge' and 'every power plant' in the country. With the ceasefire set to expire April 23, Trump renewed the same threat on April 20 and said 'I expect to be bombing.' Amnesty International called the threats 'apocalyptic' and stated they constitute threats to commit war crimes.
On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury — nearly 900 airstrikes in 12 hours against Iran — killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of officials, as well as at least 156 people, most of them children, at a primary school in Minab. The war was launched without congressional authorization, without a declaration of war, and, in the view of leading international lawyers and UN experts, without meeting the self-defense threshold under international law. The US House narrowly rejected a war powers resolution (219-212) to halt the conflict. By April 29, 2026 — 60 days after the war began — the War Powers Resolution's automatic termination provision had been triggered with no congressional response. As of May 20, 2026, 81 days into the conflict, no AUMF has been passed.
Since the US-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28, 2026, the WHO had verified 18 attacks on healthcare facilities through mid-March 2026, with at least 8 medical workers killed, 55 wounded, 6 hospitals evacuated, and 29 clinical facilities damaged. The conflict continued through the April 7 ceasefire and a near-resumption in May 2026, with additional healthcare facilities struck throughout the period. WHO's count includes incidental damage and makes no attribution; responsibility for specific incidents (US or Israeli) and whether any facility was deliberately targeted have not been established.
On the first day of the US–Israeli war on Iran, 28 February 2026, airburst missiles exploded over the Shahid Naimi sports centre in Lamerd, Fars Province, and over an adjacent residential neighbourhood and elementary school. Airwars counts at least 21 civilians killed, including at least seven children; a local official put the toll at 22. The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran found reasonable grounds to believe the US carried out the strike with Precision Strike Missiles, a weapon only the US possesses among the parties, and that the strike amounts to the war crime of launching an indiscriminate attack, a finding made under customary law on a recklessness standard. US Central Command denied responsibility and attributed the damage to an Iranian missile.
On February 28, 2026, a US Tomahawk cruise missile struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school for girls and boys aged 6 to 13 in Minab, Iran, killing at least 156 people (Minab prosecutor) to 157 (independent count cited by the UN fact-finding mission), including 120 to 123 children and 26 women educators. The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran found reasonable grounds to believe the US carried out the strike and that it amounts to the war crime of making a civilian object the object of an attack.
A Tomahawk cruise missile struck Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in Minab, killing 175+ schoolchildren -- in a conflict where the CHMR program had been dismantled.
From: Dismantlement of Pentagon Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Program
UN human rights experts formally condemn the executive order, warning that measures causing shortages of essential goods may amount to the collective punishment of civilians.
From: Intensified Cuba Sanctions Regime: Blackouts, Hospital Shutdowns, and Collective Punishment
Iran launches hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at targets in Israel and at US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Trump vows to 'avenge' the deaths of US service members.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
Legal challenges are filed arguing that the Somali rocket docket violates due process by providing inadequate notice, insufficient time to obtain counsel, and conducting proceedings in a manner that effectively prevents meaningful participation.
From: Immigration Rocket Dockets: Mass Fast-Tracked Hearings and In Absentia Removal Orders
A year after mass layoffs, the Education Department continues handing off programs to other agencies. It remains standing only because closure requires Congressional action that has not materialized.
From: Education Department Dismantlement: $881M in Contracts Slashed, IES Eliminated, 50% Workforce Cut
Analysis of FDA's CORE investigation data reveals that 41% of 2025 outbreak investigations closed without identifying a food source, nearly double the 21% rate in 2024. Thirteen of 22 investigations went unsolved.
From: FDA Food Safety Collapse: 3,500+ Staff Cut and Outbreak Investigation Capacity Gutted
A coalition of more than 30 unions, advocacy groups, and other organizations files or pledges lawsuits challenging the final rule, including AFGE, NTEU, AFL-CIO, and Democracy Forward.
From: Schedule F Reclassification: Mass Removal of Civil Service Protections
A strike on adjacent Arg Square damages Golestan Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Tehran: shattered mirrored ceilings, broken archways, blown-out windows, and damage to its glass-mosaic walls. UNESCO issues a statement of concern.
From: Damage to Iranian UNESCO World Heritage Sites in US-Israeli Airstrikes
Since March 2, 2026, Israel has launched a renewed large-scale military offensive in Lebanon, killing over 1,000 people including at least 121 children, wounding nearly 3,000, and displacing nearly 700,000 — 20% of Lebanon's population. Human Rights Watch has documented Israel's unlawful use of white phosphorus over residential areas in 2026; it has not identified the origin of those munitions. The US, Israel's principal arms supplier, has continued arms transfers despite documented violations of international humanitarian law.
The Department of Justice files motions to dismiss its appeals of all four rulings, effectively conceding that the executive orders were unconstitutional.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Law Firms Representing Trump's Opponents
The Brennan Center for Justice publishes a detailed analysis concluding that Trump's Iran strikes are unconstitutional, lacking both congressional authorization and a valid self-defense justification.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
Israeli military fires airburst white phosphorus munitions over residential homes in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor. HRW verifies and geolocates eight images showing the attack and resulting fires in homes and vehicles.
From: White Phosphorus Over Lebanese Civilian Areas and the US Supply Question
The 2026 Iran war triggered the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — through which 20% of global seaborne oil passes — causing the largest energy supply disruption since the 1970s. Oil prices surged past $120/barrel, 10+ million barrels/day of production was lost, food imports to Gulf states were disrupted by 70%, and over 220,000 Indian nationals were evacuated. The head of the IEA called it 'the greatest global energy security challenge in history.' Iran closed and mined the strait; the US is responsible for initiating the war (see the aggression entry), not for assisting Iran's closure. Despite a nominal ceasefire in effect since April 8, US and Iranian forces exchanged fire in the strait on May 7, 2026 — with US strikes on what CENTCOM described as missile, drone and command sites at Qeshm and Bandar Abbas (Iran said civilian areas were hit; unverified), a cargo vessel struck and burning (1 killed, 10 injured, per an Iranian agency), and a 71-square-kilometer oil slick near Kharg Island seen in satellite imagery, whose source is disputed. The Strait remains effectively closed as of May 9.
The USS Charlotte torpedoed the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean; 104 of the 136 crew were reported killed, including about 20 missing, and 32 were rescued by Sri Lanka. Leading IHL analyses consider the attack on a warship lawful (see the IRIS Dena entry).
From: Trump Threats to Obliterate Iran's Civilian Power Infrastructure
Central Command says long-range Precision Strike Missiles were 'used in combat during Operation Epic Fury' for the first time (Breaking Defense). The statement does not mention Lamerd.
In a bipartisan 24-19 vote, with five Republicans joining Democrats, the House Oversight Committee votes to subpoena AG Bondi for testimony on the DOJ's handling of the Epstein files. The motion was introduced by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace.
From: Epstein Files: DOJ Withholds Evidence, UN Experts Warn of Crimes Against Humanity
The Supreme Court issues a decision in Urias-Orellana v. Bondi addressing the standard of review for asylum persecution determinations, as part of the broader legal landscape surrounding asylum access.
On March 5, 2026, Trump fired Kristi Noem as DHS Secretary following a cascade of failures including the Minneapolis ICE killings of two US citizens, labeling protests as 'domestic terrorism,' and internal feuding. She was moved to a 'Special Envoy' role. Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin was nominated and confirmed 54-45 as her replacement, taking office March 31.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issues a flash update on the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon. Mass displacement begins.
From: 2026 Lebanon War — US Weapons Complicity in Mass Civilian Casualties and White Phosphorus Attacks
The US House of Representatives votes 219-212 to reject a war powers resolution that would have halted the war and required congressional authorization for further attacks. The Senate defeats a similar measure along party lines.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
The World Health Organization announces verification of 13 attacks on healthcare infrastructure in Iran, reporting that four healthcare workers have been killed and 25 others injured. Ambulances have also been damaged in the strikes.
Al Jazeera reports escalating strikes across Tehran and other cities, including attacks on hospitals, residential homes, and civilian infrastructure. Gandhi Hospital and a Red Crescent facility near Khatam al-Anbiya Hospital are hit.
Trump fires Kristi Noem as DHS Secretary following questions about her leadership and handling of the Minneapolis killings. Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin is nominated to replace her.
From: Federal Agents Kill ICU Nurse Alex Pretti During Minneapolis Immigration Protest
Under pressure from NPR's reporting, the DOJ publishes additional Epstein files including FBI interview memos related to the sexual abuse allegations against Trump. However, 37 pages remain missing from the public database.
From: Epstein Files: DOJ Withholds Evidence, UN Experts Warn of Crimes Against Humanity
After the plaintiffs dismissed their case because the surge had ended, the Seventh Circuit vacates the preliminary injunction under Munsingwear; Judge Easterbrook dissents (Seventh Circuit).
ICE agents detained and arrested reporter Estefany Rodriguez while she was driving to the gym, presenting a deportation Notice to Appear.
From: Systematic Attacks on Press Freedom: Journalist Arrests, Detention, and Deportation
House Judiciary Committee Democrats publish analysis showing Trump's pardons have erased $1.3 billion in victim repayment and taxpayer recovery for Medicare fraud, tax fraud, and other financial crimes.
Lebanon's Health Ministry reports at least 217 people killed in the first four days since the March 2 escalation. Democracy Now reports from Beirut on the destruction.
From: 2026 Lebanon War — US Weapons Complicity in Mass Civilian Casualties and White Phosphorus Attacks
Hours of police body-camera footage and records are released after public records requests. Scripps News reports that a grand jury declined to charge Stevens the previous week and the Texas Rangers closed their investigation.
SSA's inspector general notifies congressional committee leaders that it is reviewing an anonymous complaint regarding potential misuse of SSA data by a former DOGE employee, including allegations that at least one database was held on a personal thumb drive and that the employee retained 'God-level' access to SSA systems.
From: DOGE Employees Matched Social Security Data with Voter Rolls to Pursue Voter Fraud Claims
SSA's inspector general notifies congressional committee leaders that it is reviewing an anonymous complaint regarding potential misuse of SSA data by a former DOGE employee, including allegations that a database was held on a personal thumb drive and that the employee retained 'God-level' access to SSA systems.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
Secretary of State Rubio invoked emergency authority under the Arms Export Control Act to approve the sale of 12,000 1,000-pound bomb casings to Israel, worth about $152 million, as the US and Israel fought Iran (Malay Mail/AFP).
From: US Arms Transfers to Israel During ICJ Genocide Proceedings
Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the assassinated Ayatollah, is elected to replace his father as Supreme Leader on March 8. IRGC and senior Iranian leaders pledge allegiance.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
Human Rights Watch publishes a report documenting Israel's unlawful use of white phosphorus in Lebanon, with airburst munitions deployed over residential homes. HRW classifies the attacks as unlawfully indiscriminate and calls for suspension of military assistance.
From: 2026 Lebanon War — US Weapons Complicity in Mass Civilian Casualties and White Phosphorus Attacks
CNN publishes analysis with new footage confirming that a US Tomahawk cruise missile struck the Iranian military base adjacent to the school.
From: Minab School Strike: US Tomahawk Cruise Missile Kills At Least 156 at a Primary School
Human Rights Watch publishes its latest report classifying the Yohmor attack as unlawfully indiscriminate and calling on states providing Israel with weapons, including white phosphorus munitions, to immediately suspend military assistance.
From: White Phosphorus Over Lebanese Civilian Areas and the US Supply Question
The joint US-Israeli air campaign has damaged at least 56 cultural sites, museums, and historical buildings across Iran, including UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Documented damage includes Golestan Palace in Tehran (shattered mirrored ceilings and blown-out windows), the Safavid-era Abbasi Jame Mosque and Ali Qapu Palace in Isfahan's Naqsh-e Jahan Square, the 8th-century Jameh Mosque of Isfahan, Chehel Sotoun pavilion, and the prehistoric Khorramabad Valley sites dating to 63,000 BC. Over 100 heritage sites have been reported impacted. Documented damage to UNESCO-listed sites was caused by strikes on adjacent government buildings, and attribution of individual strikes between US and Israeli forces is largely not established.
The US notifies the Security Council that it acted in individual self-defense and in the collective self-defense of Israel against an Iranian threat. Former State Department lawyer Brian Finucane later assesses that the letter fails to identify any predicate armed attack.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
A federal appeals court agrees to rehear a case challenging the termination of tribal clean energy funds, after initially ruling that the EPA could proceed with terminating the grants.
Elon Musk announces X Money early public access will launch in April 2026, following internal employee testing. The platform offers 6% APY, Visa debit card, and peer-to-peer payments — exactly the type of service the CFPB was positioned to regulate.
From: CFPB Dismantlement While Musk Launches Competing XMoney Payment Service
NPR reports that 23 people have died in ICE custody since October 2025, more than in the whole of fiscal year 2025, putting detention on track for its deadliest fiscal year since 2004.
From: Record ICE Detention Deaths and Medical Care Payment Halt
Iran's IRGC says 'not one litre of oil' will get through the Strait of Hormuz, declaring complete closure.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
The Security Council adopts resolution 2817 (13-0-2) condemning Iran's attacks on Gulf states. It does not authorize or address the US-Israeli strikes.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
Iran's Health Ministry reports 11 healthcare workers killed and 55 wounded. Nearly 20,000 civilian buildings affected along with 77 healthcare facilities. The Red Crescent reports at least 9 of its centres have been struck.
Time magazine publishes its investigation concluding that evidence points to a US Tomahawk cruise missile being responsible for the school strike.
From: Minab School Strike: US Tomahawk Cruise Missile Kills At Least 156 at a Primary School
CPR News reports on Good's family and community in Colorado, where her loved ones continue to grapple with her death. Her three children have been left without their mother.
From: ICE Agent Kills Renee Good, American Mother of Three, in Minneapolis
NPR reports that the government is investigating new claims of DOGE misuse of Social Security data, with additional whistleblower allegations expanding the scope of the known data mishandling beyond what was previously disclosed.
From: DOGE Employees Matched Social Security Data with Voter Rolls to Pursue Voter Fraud Claims
The Daily Maverick reports that thousands of South African expats are returning to South Africa, challenging the premise that white South Africans face conditions warranting refugee status.
From: White Afrikaner Refugee Program: 1,648 of 1,651 US Refugees Are White South Africans
NPR reports that the government is investigating new claims of DOGE misuse of Social Security data, with additional whistleblower allegations expanding the known scope of data mishandling beyond what was previously disclosed. The SSA inspector general investigation broadens.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
Oil production of Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE collectively drops by at least 10 million barrels per day.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
The United States filed a formal declaration of intervention in the ICJ genocide case (South Africa v. Israel), supporting Israel's position.
From: US Arms Transfers to Israel During ICJ Genocide Proceedings
DHS removes E.L.A., a class member who entered as an unaccompanied minor, to El Salvador before his asylum claim is decided.
Trump threatens to 'take out power plants that create electricity, that create the water' and states the U.S. could do things 'so bad they could literally never rebuild as a nation.'
From: Trump Issues Ultimatum: 'A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight' Unless Iran Capitulates
At a Pentagon briefing on March 13, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said US forces would 'keep pushing, keep advancing; no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.' Declaring that no quarter will be given is a war crime under Rome Statute Article 8(2)(b)(xii) and prohibited by Hague Convention IV Article 23(d). Human Rights Watch and legal scholars including Oona Hathaway have concluded the statement meets that prohibition; the contested question is whether it was a declaration in the legal sense or rhetoric.
Secretary Hegseth said US forces would give 'no quarter, no mercy for our enemies'; declaring no quarter is a war crime under Rome Statute Article 8(2)(b)(xii) (see the no-quarter entry).
From: Trump Threats to Obliterate Iran's Civilian Power Infrastructure
A judge in the District of Massachusetts issued an order staying the termination of TPS for Somalia, which had been set for March 17, 2026.
From: Mass Termination of Temporary Protected Status Across 11 Countries
Depositions from the scholarly associations' lawsuit over NEH grant terminations are made public. DOGE staffers Justin Fox and Nate Cavanaugh describe flagging NEH grants as DEI; Fox says he relied on ChatGPT assessments.
From: DOGE-Directed Elimination of Federal DEI Programs and Mass Firings of DEI Workers
Al Jazeera publishes analysis from international law experts concluding that Hegseth's 'no quarter' declaration violates international law.
From: Defense Secretary Hegseth Declares 'No Quarter, No Mercy' for Iran
FCC Chair Carr threatens broadcast license revocations for networks whose Iran war coverage he characterizes as 'hoaxes and news distortions.'
From: FCC Broadcast License Threats and Government Coercion of Media
70% of GCC food imports disrupted, causing 40-120% consumer price spikes. Retailers airlift staples to maintain supply.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
Washington Post reports that deportees sent to El Salvador a year earlier are still stuck, with no legal process, no family contact, and no prospect of release.
From: Forced Disappearances of Salvadoran Deportees in El Salvador's Prison System
WHO updates its count to 18 verified attacks on healthcare facilities with 8 medical workers killed. Six hospitals have been evacuated, 29 clinical facilities damaged, 10 rendered inactive. WHO regional director Hanan Balkhy notes Iran's health infrastructure is 'holding up' but under severe strain with 15,000 wounded flooding hospitals.
Trump called individual Supreme Court justices 'unpatriotic and disloyal to the Constitution' after an adverse ruling on tariffs.
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
Human Rights Watch publishes detailed report documenting enforced disappearance of 11 Salvadoran deportees, with authorities denying their existence.
From: Forced Disappearances of Salvadoran Deportees in El Salvador's Prison System
House Oversight Chair James Comer issues a subpoena to AG Bondi to appear for a deposition on April 14 as part of the Epstein probe.
From: Epstein Files: DOJ Withholds Evidence, UN Experts Warn of Crimes Against Humanity
The administration pauses the 'pretermission' tactic without public explanation after it had been used to abruptly deny thousands of asylum claims. The Somali rocket docket proceedings continue.
From: Immigration Rocket Dockets: Mass Fast-Tracked Hearings and In Absentia Removal Orders
The last protester held in detention from the 2025 campus protest crackdown is released after a year in custody.
One year after the initial cuts, Poynter reports that Voice of America and its sister outlets remain 'mostly shadows of their former selves,' with severely reduced broadcasting capacity despite court-ordered reinstatements.
NPR reports that the last protester in detention from Trump's campus crackdown has been released, though many still face ongoing immigration proceedings and the threat of future detention.
From: Political Prisoners: Detention of Campus Activists for Pro-Palestinian Speech
The IAEA reports that a structure about 350 metres from the Bushehr reactor was hit and destroyed, with no damage to the reactor.
From: Repeated Strikes Near Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant
NPR publishes a comprehensive report on the damage to Iran's cultural heritage sites. Iran's Ministry of Cultural Heritage reports at least 56 cultural sites, museums, and historical buildings marred by the strikes.
From: Damage to Iranian UNESCO World Heritage Sites in US-Israeli Airstrikes
Secretary of State Marco Rubio declares an emergency requiring immediate approval of arms transfers to Gulf partners, bypassing congressional review for over $23 billion in weapons sales to the UAE ($8.4B), Kuwait ($8B), and Jordan, plus $7B to the UAE through non-public channels.
From: America First Arms Transfer Strategy: Human Rights Safeguards Removed From Weapons Exports
Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee walk out of a closed-door briefing with Bondi and Deputy AG Blanche within 30 minutes after Bondi repeatedly refuses to commit to complying with the April 14 deposition subpoena. Rep. Robert Garcia calls it a 'fake hearing,' noting Bondi was not under oath. Bondi responds only that she will 'follow the law.' Reps. Lieu and Goldman call for a special counsel to investigate Bondi for perjury.
From: Epstein Files: DOJ Withholds Evidence, UN Experts Warn of Crimes Against Humanity
Secretary of State Marco Rubio issues an emergency waiver under the Arms Export Control Act to bypass congressional review for over $23 billion in arms sales to the UAE, Kuwait, and Jordan. Packages include $2.1 billion in counter-drone systems for the UAE, $8 billion in radar systems for Kuwait, and additional sales to Jordan. The Iran war is cited as the emergency justification.
As bombing continues, the number of historic sites reported damaged in Iran rises to over 100, including the prehistoric Khorramabad Valley sites dating to 63,000 BC — Iran's newest UNESCO World Heritage inscription.
From: Damage to Iranian UNESCO World Heritage Sites in US-Israeli Airstrikes
The head of the International Energy Agency describes the situation as the 'greatest global energy security challenge in history.'
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
Democracy Now reports from Beirut: over 1,000 killed and more than 1 million displaced, with many fearing long-term Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon.
From: 2026 Lebanon War — US Weapons Complicity in Mass Civilian Casualties and White Phosphorus Attacks
UN independent experts issued a joint statement denouncing the military aggression against Iran and Lebanon, warning of devastating regional humanitarian consequences.
From: Trump Threats to Obliterate Iran's Civilian Power Infrastructure
Judge Friedman vacates the challenged provisions and permanently enjoins them (Clearinghouse).
HRW publishes a report documenting the ramping up of deportation of pregnant people, raising concerns about medical neglect and violations of international standards.
From: Deportation and Medical Neglect of Pregnant Women in ICE Custody
The Hengaw Documentation Center documented that the Iran war death toll had reached at least 5,900, including 595 confirmed civilian casualties.
From: Trump Threats to Obliterate Iran's Civilian Power Infrastructure
The Hengaw Documentation Center reports at least 5,900 killed in the Iran war as of March 21, 2026, including 595 confirmed civilians.
From: Minab School Strike: US Tomahawk Cruise Missile Kills At Least 156 at a Primary School
Major media outlets publish detailed reporting on the 29 deportees stuck in Equatorial Guinea, describing conditions of detention without legal counsel and no path to asylum or resettlement. Deportees describe having 'no more hope.'
Physicians for Human Rights publishes findings documenting medical care failures for pregnant women in ICE detention, including denied prenatal care and forced procedures.
From: Deportation and Medical Neglect of Pregnant Women in ICE Custody
Trump demands Iran open the strait in 48 hours or he will 'obliterate' the country's power plants, escalating the crisis further.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
Iran reportedly approaches the ICC over what it describes as an 'unprovoked war of aggression.' No Article 12(3) declaration accepting the Court's jurisdiction had been found as of October 2026.
From: Defense Secretary Hegseth Declares 'No Quarter, No Mercy' for Iran
The Senate confirms Mullin as DHS Secretary in a 54-45 vote, with Senators Fetterman and Heinrich crossing party lines.
From: Trump Fires DHS Secretary Noem After Minneapolis ICE Killings; Mullin Confirmed as Replacement
Human Rights Watch publishes a report that Israeli officials have signaled stepped-up atrocities in Lebanon, calling for immediate international action including arms suspension.
From: 2026 Lebanon War — US Weapons Complicity in Mass Civilian Casualties and White Phosphorus Attacks
Amnesty International states Trump's threat to attack Iran's power plants is a 'threat to commit war crimes.'
From: Trump Issues Ultimatum: 'A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight' Unless Iran Capitulates
Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant — the country's only operational nuclear reactor, located in a city of 250,000 — has been hit at or near the site by projectiles at least four times since the war began on February 28, according to the IAEA. Satellite imagery indicates the April impacts hit an anti-aircraft artillery site outside the perimeter fence, about 1.5 km from the reactor. A member of the plant's physical protection staff was killed by a fragment on April 4. The IAEA confirmed no radiation release but expressed 'deep concern,' while WHO warned of 'catastrophic' consequences if containment is breached. No body has found that the plant itself was targeted.
Amnesty International states that Trump's warning to attack Iran's power plants is a 'threat to commit war crimes.' The statement concerns the power-plant threats, not the no-quarter remark.
From: Defense Secretary Hegseth Declares 'No Quarter, No Mercy' for Iran
After President Trump threatened to 'obliterate' Iran's power plants, Amnesty International stated that the warning is a threat to commit war crimes: intentionally attacking civilian infrastructure such as power plants is generally prohibited, and even where they qualify as military targets, a party cannot attack them if this may cause disproportionate harm to civilians.
From: Trump Threats to Obliterate Iran's Civilian Power Infrastructure
The Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a related case on whether migrants must physically cross the border before gaining the legal right to apply for asylum.
Foreign Policy publishes a comprehensive report documenting the humanitarian crisis caused by US policy: 90% fuel import reduction, 20-hour blackouts, hospital shutdowns, food and water shortages, and disease outbreaks.
From: Intensified Cuba Sanctions Regime: Blackouts, Hospital Shutdowns, and Collective Punishment
KFF Health News published investigation documenting that ORR officials coordinated with DHS to use child reunification processes to lure and arrest parents.
From: Family Separations and Prolonged Child Detention Under Immigration Enforcement
Iranian state media reports the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant has come under attack again, marking at least the second strike on or near the facility.
From: Repeated Strikes Near Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant
UNESCO raises fresh concerns over cultural heritage across the Middle East threatened by ongoing conflict, including sites in Iran and Lebanon.
From: Damage to Iranian UNESCO World Heritage Sites in US-Israeli Airstrikes
Israeli strikes continue across Lebanon, including near Roman ruins. Nearly 700,000 displaced in Lebanon alone plus 85,000-90,000 who have crossed into Syria. Spain's PM warns Israel intends to inflict Gaza-level destruction on Lebanon.
From: 2026 Lebanon War — US Weapons Complicity in Mass Civilian Casualties and White Phosphorus Attacks
Trump claims the US is 'in negotiations right now' with Iran, though Iran denies direct talks. A 15-point peace plan is reportedly delivered via Pakistani intermediaries. The war remains ongoing with active strikes and counterstrikes.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
A strike killing 4 people is reported on March 25, 2026. The campaign shows no signs of halting despite international condemnation.
From: Operation Southern Spear: Lethal Drone Strikes on Caribbean and Pacific Drug Boats
The 8th Circuit became the second appellate court to endorse the administration's position that some immigrants can be detained without bond hearings.
From: Systematic Elimination of Bond Hearings and Indefinite Immigration Detention
ProPublica reported that the civilian harm program was dismantled months before the Iran war, directly connecting the institutional gap to civilian casualties.
From: Dismantlement of Pentagon Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Program
A coalition of environmental organizations and state attorneys general file suit challenging the EPA's rollback of emissions standards, arguing the actions violate the Clean Air Act and endanger public health.
DHS data obtained by journalists reveals that 363 pregnant, postpartum, and nursing immigrants were deported between January 2025 and February 2026, with 16 miscarriages recorded.
From: Deportation and Medical Neglect of Pregnant Women in ICE Custody
HRW publishes report finding that rhetoric and actions in the Middle East conflict flout the laws of war.
From: Trump Issues Ultimatum: 'A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight' Unless Iran Capitulates
Human Rights Watch says that declaring no quarter is a war crime, in a statement on rhetoric and actions in the Middle East conflict.
From: Defense Secretary Hegseth Declares 'No Quarter, No Mercy' for Iran
Minnesota and Hennepin County file suit against the Trump administration for withholding evidence. In Pretti's case specifically, state officials say federal agents physically blocked state investigators from accessing the scene of the killing — an extraordinary obstruction of a state criminal inquiry into the death of an American citizen. Pretti's cell phone, which could contain crucial evidence, remains in federal custody and has not been provided to state investigators.
From: Federal Agents Kill ICU Nurse Alex Pretti During Minneapolis Immigration Protest
Minnesota and Hennepin County file suit against the Trump administration, accusing it of withholding evidence in the Good, Pretti, and Sosa-Celis shootings. State officials say federal agents initially agreed to cooperate at the scenes of the Good and Sosa-Celis shootings, then later took control of all evidence. Good's car — potentially containing critical forensic evidence — was shrink-wrapped and sent to an FBI warehouse, where it has never been examined. DHS has not disclosed whether body camera footage from the shooting exists.
From: ICE Agent Kills Renee Good, American Mother of Three, in Minneapolis
RFK Jr. touts the measles response as a defense of his CDC overhaul, even as the agency remains severely weakened and measles outbreaks continue into 2026.
From: HHS Dismantlement Under RFK Jr. During the Worst Measles Outbreak in 30 Years
UN News reports WHO's monitor has recorded 21 attacks on health workers and facilities in Iran since the war began, with 17 Red Crescent centres struck and nearly 100 ambulances damaged or destroyed.
Visual analysis by The New York Times identifies the munition as a PrSM and finds the hall and school walled off from the neighbouring Revolutionary Guard compound for at least 15 years (Irish Times republication; UN Mission, para 107).
President Trump publicly threatens to destroy Iran's civilian infrastructure, warning that the United States will bomb the country 'back to the Stone Ages' — signaling a deliberate shift toward targeting civilian objects.
From: U.S. Strike Destroys Iran's B1 Bridge, Killing Civilians on Nowruz Holiday
The district court grants the plaintiffs' motion for class certification.
From: CBP One App Shutdown: 30,000 Asylum Appointments Cancelled, 270,000 Stranded
Mullin's appointment takes effect. He pauses new warehouse detention facility purchases for review.
From: Trump Fires DHS Secretary Noem After Minneapolis ICE Killings; Mullin Confirmed as Replacement
CENTCOM denies responsibility for the strike on the sports centre and school and says the munition in the footage was more consistent with an Iranian Hoveyzeh cruise missile (UN Mission, para 114).
Trump signs 'Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,' directing DHS to compile state citizenship lists, ordering the US Postal Service to block delivery of mail-in ballots for anyone not on a federally controlled list, and instructing the DOJ to investigate and prosecute state election officials who allow unapproved voters to cast ballots. Experts say the order is unconstitutional and would disenfranchise 48 million voters.
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
Republican commissioner Donald Palmer leaves the EAC in April 2026, reducing the commission to three members.
On April 2, 2026, the United States destroyed Iran's B1 bridge near Karaj — the country's most complex engineering project — in two waves of strikes about an hour apart that killed 8 people and wounded 95, most of them villagers celebrating Sizdah Bedar (Nature Day) below the bridge, according to the provincial governor. President Trump celebrated the destruction on social media. Iran says the bridge, which reports describe as unfinished or newly opened, had no military use; the US military described it as a planned supply route for Iranian missile and drone forces.
The Moscow Times publishes analysis drawing parallels between Bushehr and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, warning that another Russia-linked nuclear facility is now at risk from war.
From: Repeated Strikes Near Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant
Three immigration judges are fired on Good Friday, April 3, 2026, bringing the total fired without cause since January 2025 to 107. The National Association of Immigration Judges condemns the firings.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemns the strike as evidence of the 'moral collapse of an enemy in disarray.' International condemnation follows.
From: U.S. Strike Destroys Iran's B1 Bridge, Killing Civilians on Nowruz Holiday
NAACP, Common Cause, Black Voters Matter, and Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law file suit in DC federal court. The lawsuit argues the order violates separation of powers, usurps authority assigned to Congress and states, and unconstitutionally burdens the right to vote.
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
A projectile strikes close to the Bushehr site. Iran informs the IAEA that a member of the physical protection staff was killed by a fragment and a building on site was affected by shockwaves and fragments. The IAEA reports no increase in radiation levels.
From: Repeated Strikes Near Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant
President Trump set a Tuesday, April 7 deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to destroy every bridge, every power plant, and all civilian infrastructure in Iran. He stated 'a whole civilization will die tonight' and promised 'complete demolition' within four hours. Amnesty International called the threat to attack power plants 'a threat to commit war crimes', and over 100 international law experts later warned that US attacks on such infrastructure could be war crimes.
The IAEA Director General states he is 'deeply concerned' and that nuclear plant sites 'must never be attacked.' WHO warns that a radioactive release from Bushehr would be 'catastrophic' for the surrounding population and region.
From: Repeated Strikes Near Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant
President Trump threatened to imprison journalists who published details of a U.S. military operation to rescue two downed airmen in Iran, accusing them of jeopardizing the mission. The threat extends the administration's pattern of criminalizing journalism and using national security as a pretext to suppress press freedom.
Iran rejects a 45-day ceasefire proposal. Trump holds a press conference repeating threats of 'complete demolition' within four hours and states 'a whole civilization will die tonight.'
From: Trump Issues Ultimatum: 'A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight' Unless Iran Capitulates
Minneapolis releases additional surveillance camera footage from multiple angles showing the moments before and during Good's killing. The footage, reviewed by law enforcement experts and major news organizations, further contradicts the federal government's claim that Good posed a lethal threat to Agent Ross. Fox 9 and the Minnesota Reformer report that the footage shows Good's car turning away from agents at the moment of the shooting, not toward them.
From: ICE Agent Kills Renee Good, American Mother of Three, in Minneapolis
Prism publishes accounts from Souvannarath and from men held in Camp J before 2018, together with ICE's denial.
From: 'Camp 57': ICE Detainees Held in a Former Disciplinary Unit Inside Angola Prison (September 2025–)
The Big Ten Academic Alliance announces a 'Mutual Academic Defense Compact' to coordinate collective legal, financial, and political resistance to what universities describe as the Trump administration's assault on academic freedom. The initiative launched at Rutgers University's faculty senate, with universities pledging to share legal resources, coordinate lobbying, and refuse compliance with administration demands not grounded in law.
From: Coercion of Universities: Funding Freezes, Research Cuts, and Demands for Political Compliance
NBC News reports on FOIA records obtained by Democracy Forward revealing the details of the deputization and training waivers.
From: Musk's Private Bodyguards Deputized as Federal Agents Without Required Training
The United States and Iran announce a temporary ceasefire mediated by Pakistan, taking effect April 7. Both sides agree to halt active hostilities while negotiations proceed. The ceasefire is extended past its initial two-week duration but remains fragile.
From: Trump Rejects Iran Ceasefire Proposal, Plans 'Very Major Attack,' Cancels at Last Minute (May 2026)
The United States and Iran announce a temporary ceasefire mediated by Pakistan. Both sides agree to halt active hostilities. The ceasefire remains nominally in effect through early May.
Trump states the Tuesday deadline is final and will not be moved again, warning the 'entire country' could be taken out. A ceasefire is announced on April 7-8 and the threatened nationwide demolition does not take place.
From: Trump Issues Ultimatum: 'A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight' Unless Iran Capitulates
More than 200 human rights, humanitarian, and civil liberties organizations issued a joint statement calling Trump's infrastructure threats a threat to commit war crimes and demanding accountability. Hours later, the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire, temporarily suspending the threat to destroy Iranian power plants.
From: Trump Threats to Obliterate Iran's Civilian Power Infrastructure
The US and Iran announce a ceasefire mediated by Pakistan, taking effect April 7. Neither the ceasefire nor the preceding war had been authorized by Congress.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
Hours before his self-imposed 8 PM deadline, Trump posts on Truth Social warning that 'a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.' Amnesty International warns the threats may constitute 'a threat to commit genocide' under the Rome Statute.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
A FRONTLINE documentary titled 'The Deal: Trump, Bukele & the Gangs of El Salvador' premieres, documenting the political background and secret terms of the CECOT arrangement and Bukele's ties to Salvadoran gangs. Reporters describe the agreement as a trade: deportation of Venezuelans in exchange for diplomatic, financial, and political support for Bukele's government.
From: Secret $6 Million Contract to Outsource Detention to El Salvador's CECOT
Israel launched Operation Eternal Darkness on April 8, 2026 — 100 airstrikes in 10 minutes across Lebanon using 50 jets and ~160 munitions, killing 357 and injuring 1,223. The US remained silent and continued arms supply to Israel; whether US assistance reached this operation has not been established.
Trump announces a two-week ceasefire with Iran. Iran says it will allow safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz if vessels coordinate with Iranian forces. However, by April 9 the strait remains effectively closed — only four dry cargo ships pass through versus the nine-per-day wartime average.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
A ceasefire is announced — Iran agrees to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for two weeks. However, the ceasefire immediately begins unraveling as Israel launches Operation Eternal Darkness on Lebanon, and the strait remains effectively closed.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
Israeli airstrikes continue across Lebanon. Hezbollah launches retaliatory rocket attacks. The US remains silent on the previous day's massacre. Norway states the strikes 'breach international humanitarian law.'
From: U.S. Complicity in Israel's Operation Eternal Darkness: April 8 Lebanon Massacre
The court holds that the department 'did not comply' with its order and enjoins the interim policy's challenged provisions; the department appeals the next day (opinion; Clearinghouse).
Washington Post analysis reveals Trump's reshaped Supreme Court is the first since the 1950s to reject civil rights claims in a majority of cases involving women and minorities. Civil rights expansion wins dropped to 44%. Court favors religious rights 98% of the time while upholding voting protections in only 7% of cases.
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
The Board of Immigration Appeals denied Khalil's bid to throw out the deportation case, leaving a final administrative removal order. In May 2026 his lawyers said they would seek Supreme Court review of the Third Circuit decision.
From: Deportation Proceedings Against Mahmoud Khalil for Pro-Palestine Protest Activity
Six immigration judges are fired, bringing the running total to 113. They include Massachusetts immigration judges Roopal Patel and Nina Froes. Judge Patel had ruled in January 2026 that the government had no grounds to deport Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish national detained by ICE in March 2025. Judge Froes had blocked, in February 2026, the deportation of Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian lawful permanent resident. No reason was given for the removals; Inside Higher Ed, Democracy Now! and other outlets reported them alongside those rulings.
Diplomatic channels open for Israel-Lebanon ceasefire discussions amid mounting international pressure and condemnation of Operation Eternal Darkness.
From: U.S. Complicity in Israel's Operation Eternal Darkness: April 8 Lebanon Massacre
The Institute for Science and International Security publishes satellite imagery from April 8 showing impact points on an anti-aircraft artillery site 70 to 110 metres from the perimeter fence and about 1.5 km from the reactor.
From: Repeated Strikes Near Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant
NPR reports that a federal accountability investigation into the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti 'remains elusive.' No federal civil rights investigation has been publicly announced. No federal charges have been filed. DHS did not respond to NPR questions about whether the officers who killed Pretti and Good have faced any discipline. Two other DHS officers — unrelated to the killings — were placed on administrative leave for making 'untruthful statements.'
From: Federal Agents Kill ICU Nurse Alex Pretti During Minneapolis Immigration Protest
NPR reports that a meaningful federal investigation into the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti 'remains elusive.' No federal charges have been filed against Agent Ross. The Department of Justice has not announced a formal civil rights investigation. DHS did not respond to NPR's questions about whether any officer involved in the Good or Pretti killings has faced any form of discipline.
From: ICE Agent Kills Renee Good, American Mother of Three, in Minneapolis
U.S. delegation including Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner arrives in Islamabad, Pakistan for peace talks with Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Negotiations begin with Pakistani mediation.
Trump announces US forces are 'clearing' the Strait. US Navy destroyers enter the strait for the first time since the war began. Iran claims an American vessel turned back after warning and accuses the US of violating the ceasefire.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
JD Vance, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner meet Iran's Foreign Minister Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf in Islamabad, Pakistan. The talks represent the first direct US-Iran negotiations since the war began.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
After 21 hours of negotiations, peace talks in Islamabad collapse without agreement. Trump immediately announces a full naval blockade of all Iranian ports, declaring no vessel will enter or depart Iranian waters.
After 21 hours of failed negotiations in Islamabad, Trump declares a full naval blockade of all Iranian ports. The blockade targets all vessels entering or departing Iranian waters. Trump says he 'no longer cares about negotiations.'
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
After 21 hours, the Islamabad talks fail. Iran's Parliament Speaker says 'US did not succeed in gaining the trust of the Iranian government.' Trump immediately escalates by declaring a naval blockade of Iranian ports — a belligerent measure under the law of naval warfare, here imposed in furtherance of an unlawful use of force.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
After Islamabad peace talks collapsed on April 12, Trump declared a full naval blockade of all Iranian ports beginning April 13. Trump threatened ships approaching the blockade would be 'blown to hell' and 'eliminated.' A blockade is a belligerent act under the law of naval warfare; imposed in furtherance of an unlawful war, it is also a listed act of aggression (UNGA Res 3314, Art 3(c)). The US declared that humanitarian shipments of food and medical supplies would be permitted, subject to inspection.
More than 100 international law experts sign a statement published by Just Security warning that U.S. strikes on Iran violate the UN Charter and may constitute war crimes.
From: Trump Issues Ultimatum: 'A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight' Unless Iran Capitulates
The naval blockade begins at 10 AM ET. Trump threatens ships approaching the blockade will be 'blown to hell.' A 40-nation coalition led by the UK begins planning to reopen the strait. Iran warns 'no port in the Persian Gulf will be safe.'
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
The US naval blockade begins at 10 AM ET. Trump threatens to destroy approaching ships. The war escalates from airstrikes to siege warfare against Iran's 88 million civilians. A 40-nation coalition led by the UK begins planning to reopen the strait in opposition to the US blockade.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
The Trump administration fired over 113 immigration judges without cause, due process, or explanation — systematically dismantling the independence of the U.S. immigration court system. On April 10, 2026, it fired two judges weeks after they had blocked the deportation of pro-Palestinian student activists Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi; no reason was given, and press reports linked the timing to those rulings.
The naval blockade remains in full effect as global oil markets react and diplomatic channels remain open for a possible second round of negotiations. CFR analysis estimates Iran is losing $13 billion per month.
BBC Verify analysis of public transponder data confirmed at least four ships related to Iran attempted to cross the Strait of Hormuz but stopped or turned around after presumed U.S. interception. French President Macron and UK Prime Minister Starmer announced an April 17 online meeting for countries interested in a 'defensive multilateral mission' to maintain free passage — a coalition forming in direct opposition to U.S. blockade policy.
BBC Verify analysis of public transponder data showed only four ships attempted to cross the Strait of Hormuz on April 14 — all stopped or reversed course after presumed U.S. interception. Macron and Starmer announced a multilateral meeting on April 17 to coordinate a 'defensive mission' to maintain free passage, underscoring allied opposition to the blockade.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
A 2-1 D.C. Circuit panel (Judges Rao and Walker; Judge Childs dissenting) blocks Boasberg from conducting a contempt inquiry into the March 2025 flights.
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
Trump told Fox Business he believed the war would end 'fairly soon.' The U.S.-Iran ceasefire is set to expire April 21 with no lasting agreement in sight. The U.S. Senate voted 47-52 to reject a fourth war powers resolution — the War Powers Act's 60-day deadline for congressional authorization approaches at end of April.
The U.S. Senate voted 47-52 to reject a fourth Democratic war powers resolution to limit Trump's Iran war — the fourth consecutive failure of Congress to reassert its constitutional authority. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was the lone Republican to join Democrats; Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) broke with his party to vote against the resolution. The War Powers Act's 60-day authorization deadline arrives at the end of April. If Congress does not act by then, the administration will have waged nearly two months of undeclared war on a sovereign nation without lawful congressional authorization.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
The Pentagon confirmed the U.S. Navy had turned back 13 ships since the blockade began. Israel and Lebanon agreed to a U.S.-brokered 10-day truce. Canada officially condemned Iran's strikes and called for the strait to remain open. The blockade has now been in effect for three days with 88 million Iranian civilians subject to ongoing economic siege.
Trump announced Israel and Lebanon agreed to a U.S.-brokered 10-day truce, reducing one front of the regional conflict. The Pentagon confirmed 13 ships had been turned back since the blockade began.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
Minnesota charges ICE agent Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. with two felony counts of second-degree assault for pointing a gun at civilians in an unmarked vehicle in February. The charges are the first against any federal immigration officer for conduct during the Minneapolis enforcement surge — a precedent that may open the path to eventual charges against the agents who killed Pretti and Good.
From: Federal Agents Kill ICU Nurse Alex Pretti During Minneapolis Immigration Protest
Minnesota prosecutors charge ICE agent Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. with two counts of felony second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon for pointing a gun at civilians in an unmarked SUV in February 2026. The charges are the first against any federal immigration officer for actions taken during the Minneapolis surge. The charges against Morgan — unrelated to the Good or Pretti killings — signal state prosecutors' determination to hold federal agents accountable even as federal agencies refuse to cooperate.
From: ICE Agent Kills Renee Good, American Mother of Three, in Minneapolis
Iran announced that passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is completely open during the Lebanon truce period. Trump confirmed the opening. The U.S.-Iran ceasefire expires April 23 without a permanent agreement — the full humanitarian and economic consequences of the siege on Iran's civilian population remain pending a durable resolution.
Iran announced that commercial vessel passage through the Strait of Hormuz is completely open during the Lebanon truce period. Trump confirmed the development, stating the war was 'very close to over.' The U.S.-Iran ceasefire expires April 23 without a permanent agreement — the global energy and food security crisis triggered by the war remains unresolved.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
Iran announced the Strait of Hormuz is open to commercial shipping during the Lebanon truce. The U.S.-Iran ceasefire is set to expire April 21 without a permanent agreement, leaving the war's legal status unresolved and the War Powers Act deadline imminent.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
Rep. Jamie Raskin opens an investigation into the foreign entanglements of Kushner, now Special Envoy for Peace. He says Affinity holds about $6.16 billion in assets, 99% from foreign nationals, and that the initial $2 billion Saudi commitment came despite 'strong internal objections from Saudi officials'.
From: Trump Emoluments: Foreign Government Payments Through Business Deals, Gifts, and Cryptocurrency
Iran announced it was re-closing the Strait of Hormuz to most traffic, blaming the United States for 'breaches of trust' — specifically, the U.S. refusal to lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports as a condition of the ceasefire. The closure reversed the brief partial opening announced April 17 and directly imperiled the fragile truce.
Iran announced the strait was again closed to most traffic, blaming the U.S. refusal to lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports as a 'breach of trust.' The re-closure reversed the brief April 17 partial opening and renewed the energy and food supply disruption affecting Gulf states and global markets.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
The U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer fired on the engine room of the Iranian-flagged cargo ship Touska in the Gulf of Oman as it attempted to bypass the naval blockade. U.S. Marines rappelled from helicopters onto the vessel and took it into custody. Trump announced the seizure on Truth Social: 'stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom.' Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned the seizure as 'extremely dangerous' and 'criminal,' demanded immediate release of the vessel and its crew, and vowed retaliation. Oil prices surged on the news, further imperiling ceasefire negotiations.
U.S. forces fired on and seized the Iranian-flagged cargo ship Touska in the Gulf of Oman after it attempted to bypass the naval blockade. Iran's Foreign Ministry called the seizure 'extremely dangerous' and 'criminal,' demanded the vessel's immediate release, and vowed retaliation. Oil prices jumped sharply on the news, with markets interpreting the seizure as further imperiling the fragile ceasefire.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
Trump posted on Truth Social that unless Iran accepts his terms, 'the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,' threatening 'complete demolition by 12 o'clock.' Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf responded that Iran was 'prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield.' Vice President Vance departed for Islamabad for a second round of talks, but Iranian state media reported no Iranian delegation had traveled to Pakistan.
As the ceasefire neared its April 23 expiration, Trump posted on Truth Social: 'the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,' threatening 'complete demolition by 12 o'clock.' The threat — a near-verbatim repetition of the March threats condemned by Amnesty International — was issued while the ceasefire was still nominally in effect. Legal experts characterised the renewed threat as a threat to commit war crimes.
From: Trump Threats to Obliterate Iran's Civilian Power Infrastructure
On April 21, 2026, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced a federal grand jury indictment in the Middle District of Alabama against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on six counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The government alleges the SPLC defrauded donors by secretly paying more than $3 million to informants inside the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups through a now-defunct program, using bank accounts for fictitious entities, and that the payments funded the extremism it claimed to fight. The SPLC pleaded not guilty on May 7, 2026. Former prosecutors and legal scholars have called the case retaliatory; critics view it as an attack on civil society organizations that monitor far-right extremism.
The U.S.-Iran ceasefire is set to expire Wednesday evening (April 23), Washington time. Trump said it was 'highly unlikely' he would extend it: 'I expect to be bombing because I think that's a better attitude to go in with.' Iran's chief negotiator said Tehran will not negotiate 'under the shadow of threats' while the naval blockade remains in effect. The main sticking points: the U.S. demands full Hormuz reopening and limits on nuclear enrichment; Iran demands the blockade be lifted and guarantees that Israel-Hezbollah fighting will not resume. The 88 million civilians subject to the blockade remain under economic siege with no permanent resolution in sight.
The U.S.-Iran ceasefire expires April 23. Full Hormuz reopening remains the core U.S. negotiating demand; Iran insists the naval blockade must be lifted first. Trump has threatened to resume bombing if no deal is reached, saying 'I expect to be bombing.' The global energy and food security crisis triggered by the war remains unresolved with no permanent agreement in sight.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
Trump told reporters he expected to resume bombing Iran if negotiations failed by the April 23 deadline: 'I expect to be bombing because I think that's a better attitude to go in with.' Iran's Parliament Speaker warned Iran had 'new cards on the battlefield.' The renewed threats were condemned by Amnesty International as 'apocalyptic' and requiring 'urgent global action to prevent atrocity crimes.'
From: Trump Threats to Obliterate Iran's Civilian Power Infrastructure
Trump extended the ceasefire hours before its expiration at Pakistan's request, to allow time for an Iranian proposal. Within hours, Iran's IRGC seized two container ships and fired on a third in direct retaliation for the US seizure of the Touska. By April 22 the US Navy had intercepted a total of 29 ships since the blockade began on April 13. The IRGC confirmed it had also laid sea mines in parts of the strait.
Hours before the ceasefire was set to expire, Trump extended it at Pakistan's request to allow time for an Iranian proposal. Within hours, Iran's IRGC seized two container ships and fired on a third, causing serious bridge damage — in direct retaliation for the US seizure of the Iranian vessel Touska three days earlier. By April 22 the US had intercepted 29 ships total since the naval blockade began.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
In RAICES v. Mullin (No. 25-5243), a D.C. Circuit panel (Pillard, Walker and Childs; Walker concurring in part and dissenting in part) affirms Judge Moss's summary judgment and class certification, holding that the proclamation and guidance are unlawful to the extent they circumvent the INA's removal procedures and the right to apply for asylum or withholding of removal. The entry suspension itself was not challenged.
Trump canceled the US delegation's trip to Pakistan for a second round of negotiations, while publicly acknowledging he is maintaining the strait closure to deny Iran oil revenue. Trump stated he was 'the one keeping the strait closed' because opening it would allow Iran to 'make $500 million a day' — an explicit statement that the blockade targets Iran's oil revenue; this does not by itself establish intent to starve civilians.
Trump canceled the US negotiating team's scheduled trip to Pakistan, citing lack of Iranian good faith. Simultaneously he claimed the US 'fully controls' the Strait of Hormuz while acknowledging he is personally keeping it closed to deny Iran its oil revenue — an explicit statement that the strait closure is being weaponized as economic coercion against the Iranian civilian population.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
A divided panel of Judges Walker, Childs and Garcia stays the order to the extent it entitles journalists to unescorted access (Clearinghouse).
On April 28, 2026, Trump's Justice Department obtained a federal grand jury indictment against former FBI Director James Comey for sharing an Instagram photo depicting seashells arranged to spell '86 47.' Prosecutors argued the phrase constituted a coded death threat against President Trump (the 47th president). Comey has said he did not realize some people associate the numbers with violence, assumed the shells were a political message, and took the post down. The indictment was filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina and announced by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Many former prosecutors and First Amendment scholars have said the post falls within protected political speech, noting that '86 47' is common political shorthand for removing Trump from office.
Sixty days after Operation Epic Fury launched on February 28, the War Powers Resolution's automatic termination provision (50 U.S.C. § 1544(c)) required that hostilities cease unless Congress had authorized them. Congress had not. The administration took no action to comply and did not seek authorization.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
Three nationals of Cameroon and Egypt are sent to Equatorial Guinea (Third Country Deportation Watch).
The Supreme Court hears expedited oral arguments on whether the Trump administration properly terminated TPS for 350,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians. The case raises the threshold question of whether courts can review TPS termination decisions at all — the administration argues they cannot. The court's eventual ruling could affect 1.3 million TPS holders from 17 countries. Conservative justices appeared sympathetic to the administration's position that TPS terminations are unreviewable executive decisions. A US District Court had previously found the terminations were likely motivated in part by 'racial animus' in violation of equal protection.
From: Mass Termination of Temporary Protected Status Across 11 Countries
AFRICOM conducts an airstrike targeting al-Shabaab in coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia. No casualty figures provided. AFRICOM has not restored the practice of providing casualty estimates, a policy suspended since May 2025.
From: Massive Escalation of US Airstrikes in Somalia with Zero Civilian Accountability
Nebraska begins applying the law's work reporting requirement to new applicants on May 1, 2026, ahead of the national January 1, 2027 deadline, and to existing enrollees at renewal from July 1.
From: One Big Beautiful Bill: $1 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts and $295 Billion in SNAP Cuts
On May 4, 2026, the Trump administration launched 'Operation Project Freedom' — a US Navy operation to escort merchant ships through the Strait of Hormuz over Iranian objections, during a nominal ceasefire while Iran was blocking the strait. Saudi Arabia denied the US use of Prince Sultan Airbase and Saudi airspace, and Trump announced a 'pause for negotiations' within 48 hours; the New York Times reported the real reason was the Saudi airspace denial. On May 7 Iran attacked three US destroyers transiting the strait. Congress was not notified, and the operation had no congressional authorization.
The US launched 'Project Freedom' — a freedom of navigation operation for commercial vessels transiting the Strait. On the same day, Iranian forces attacked UAE targets, significantly expanding the regional footprint of the conflict. The blockade has now been in effect for 21 days.
The US launched Operation 'Project Freedom' to assert freedom of navigation for commercial vessels through the strait. On the same day, Iranian forces attacked targets in the UAE — a significant regional escalation beyond the Iran-US bilateral conflict. Oil markets spike on renewed regional uncertainty.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
AFRICOM conducts an airstrike targeting ISIS-Somalia approximately 75 km southeast of Bossaso in the Golis Mountains region. No casualty figures provided by AFRICOM. Independent monitoring has not yet verified the strike's civilian impact.
From: Massive Escalation of US Airstrikes in Somalia with Zero Civilian Accountability
The Trump administration announces a 'pause for negotiations.' The New York Times subsequently reports that the stated reason was a cover story; the actual cause was Saudi Arabia's airspace denial making the operation militarily non-viable.
The court affirms the 118-day extension and the release of class members found arrested without a warrant, and reverses the rest of the release order (Seventh Circuit final judgment).
As of May 5, more than seven months into the federal fiscal year, the Office of Management and Budget has unlocked little or no funding for nearly three dozen Education Department competitive grant programs. NIH and NSF have now abruptly canceled billions in peer-reviewed research grants, often without explanation or notice. Universities describe an atmosphere of paralysis in which research programs critical to public health, climate science, and national security hang on political whims rather than scientific merit.
From: Coercion of Universities: Funding Freezes, Research Cuts, and Demands for Political Compliance
The operation is fully stood down. Congressional leaders confirm they were not notified before or during the operation, in violation of the War Powers Resolution's 48-hour notification requirement.
Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and Sentinel-3 satellite imagery reveals a suspected oil spill covering approximately 71 square kilometers west of Kharg Island — Iran's primary crude export terminal. Analysts estimate roughly 80,000 barrels of crude have leaked from the terminal. Iran denies a spill is occurring. The spill, if confirmed, would be the largest marine oil discharge in the Persian Gulf in decades, threatening marine ecosystems, fisheries, and water desalination infrastructure across the Gulf states.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
The federal government turns over some evidence relating to Renee Good's death to state investigators. Evidence from the Pretti killing — including Pretti's cell phone and scene-of-shooting materials — remains in federal custody. State investigators say federal agents' physical obstruction of the Pretti scene on January 24 may have permanently compromised the ability to conduct a fair investigation.
From: Federal Agents Kill ICU Nurse Alex Pretti During Minneapolis Immigration Protest
The federal government finally hands over evidence relating to the investigation of Good's death to state investigators, more than four months after the killing. The handover follows a lawsuit and months of public pressure. Evidence relating to the killing of Alex Pretti remains withheld, including Pretti's cell phone and other materials from the scene.
From: ICE Agent Kills Renee Good, American Mother of Three, in Minneapolis
The Illinois State Police Public Integrity Task Force opens an investigation at Franklin Park police's request; the Cook County State's Attorney's office says it will play a 'supportive role' (WTTW).
AFRICOM conducts another airstrike targeting ISIS-Somalia in northern Somalia. The cluster of three strikes in one week suggests an intensification of operations. AFRICOM continues its policy of providing no public casualty estimates, making independent accountability for civilian harm nearly impossible.
From: Massive Escalation of US Airstrikes in Somalia with Zero Civilian Accountability
Iranian forces launch missiles, drones and small-boat attacks on USS Truxtun, USS Rafael Peralta and USS Mason as they transit the strait. The US strikes Iranian sites at Bandar Abbas and Qeshm. The New York Times reports that the pause had followed Saudi Arabia's denial of airspace and base access.
At a press call, Norm Eisen says 'we've never seen a case like this under a Democratic or a Republican administration in our history,' and former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance says many donors were likely aware of the SPLC's use of informants.
From: DOJ Indicts Southern Poverty Law Center Over Its Paid-Informant Program (April 2026)
The Southern Poverty Law Center, through interim CEO Bryan Fair, enters a not guilty plea to all 11 counts. Magistrate Judge Kelly F. Pate sets a tentative trial date of October 5. The SPLC accuses the Justice Department of political retaliation and of possibly making false statements to the grand jury.
From: DOJ Indicts Southern Poverty Law Center Over Its Paid-Informant Program (April 2026)
Iranian forces attack three US Navy destroyers in the Strait of Hormuz; the US strikes Qeshm and Bandar Abbas in response. The naval blockade remains in effect despite the nominal ceasefire. One cargo vessel is struck and burning; one sailor killed. Iran declares the ceasefire violated.
Iranian forces attack USS Truxton, USS Mason, and USS Rafael Peralta with missiles, drones, and small boats as the destroyers transit the Strait. No US vessels are hit. CENTCOM launches 'self-defense strikes' on what it describes as missile and drone launch sites, command and control locations and ISR nodes on Qeshm Island and at Bandar Abbas. Iran says the strikes hit civilian areas in Qeshm, Bandar Khamir, and Sirik. Each side claims the other fired first. A cargo vessel struck in an overnight US strike catches fire, killing one sailor and injuring ten. Iran declares the ceasefire violated. Trump maintains the ceasefire is still in effect and calls the strikes a 'love tap.'
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
The appeal of the preliminary injunction (No. 26-5070) is argued; the district court case is stayed pending the appeal, with the injunction in effect (Clearinghouse).
US forces fire on and disable two Iranian oil tankers attempting to bypass the blockade. Iran's Foreign Ministry says the US has 'crossed the point of no return.' The blockade has now been in continuous effect for 25 days, subjecting Iran's 88 million civilians to sustained economic siege with no resolution in sight. Iran is charging foreign commercial vessels a toll of over $1 million per ship to transit the Strait — a de facto privatization of the world's most critical energy chokepoint.
US forces fire on and disable two Iranian oil tankers attempting to evade the naval blockade. Iran's Foreign Ministry says the US has 'crossed the point of no return' and blasts US actions as a 'reckless military adventure in Hormuz.' The Strait continues to be effectively closed, with Iran charging passage tolls of over $1 million per vessel. Washington awaits Iran's formal response to its latest peace proposal.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
Trump says the US is waiting for Iran's reply to its latest peace proposal, with Trump warning Iran to sign 'fast.' The Kharg Island oil spill is confirmed at approximately 80,000 barrels and growing. Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, injured in an earlier blast (kneecap, back, area behind his ear), remains in power. The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed on day 70 of the conflict, with the global energy and food crisis unresolved.
From: Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Global Energy and Food Security Catastrophe
The Supreme Court has not yet issued a ruling in the Haiti and Syria TPS case. If the court sides with the administration — as oral argument signaled it may — deportations of Haitians to a country under gang control of 90% of Port-au-Prince could resume, along with Syrians potentially returned to post-Assad instability. Decision expected by late June or early July 2026.
From: Mass Termination of Temporary Protected Status Across 11 Countries
Between May 10 and May 19, 2026, Trump rejected Iran's ceasefire counterproposal as 'TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE,' declared the ceasefire 'on massive life support,' and VP Vance announced the US was 'locked and loaded' for resumed strikes. Trump then planned a 'very major attack' on Iran for May 20 before canceling it at the last minute after Gulf state allies (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE) personally lobbied for a 2–3 day pause to allow nuclear negotiations to continue. The episode illustrates a pattern of unilateral war threats made without congressional authorization, resolved only by foreign-government intervention rather than domestic legal constraint.
Trump rejected Iran's ceasefire counterproposal as 'TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE' and planned a 'very major attack' for May 20 before canceling it after Gulf state lobbying. VP Vance declared the US 'locked and loaded.' No congressional authorization was sought for any of these planned operations.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
In CNN live coverage, Trump escalates his language, calling the ceasefire 'on massive life support.' VP JD Vance publicly announces the US is 'locked and loaded' to resume major combat operations if negotiations collapse. Iran's foreign minister says 'a lack of trust is the biggest impediment.'
From: Trump Rejects Iran Ceasefire Proposal, Plans 'Very Major Attack,' Cancels at Last Minute (May 2026)
Oil prices rise on fears that a breakdown of the ceasefire could close the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of global oil shipments pass. Bloomberg reports the ceasefire is 'fragile' with no new talks scheduled.
From: Trump Rejects Iran Ceasefire Proposal, Plans 'Very Major Attack,' Cancels at Last Minute (May 2026)
On May 14, 2026, the Pentagon Inspector General released a report (DOWIG-2026-084) finding that the Department had not fully implemented any of the 11 objectives of the 2022 Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP) by the end of FY2025, with 133 implementing actions incomplete. Civilian harm mitigation staff had fallen from about 160 to about 16, and the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence from nearly 40 to 7. The same day, CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper told senators of reports of US strikes on Iranian hospitals and schools: 'There's no way we can corroborate that.' The IG found non-compliance with policy required by federal law (FY2019 NDAA §936; 10 U.S.C. §§134, 184). A later Pentagon review of the Minab school strike reportedly found that the shrunken civilian-harm team meant no specialist reviewed the target.
Trump publicly confirms he had planned a 'very major attack' on Iran for Tuesday, May 20. He says Gulf state leaders — including the rulers of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE — personally called him to request a 2–3 day pause because they believe a deal is within reach.
From: Trump Rejects Iran Ceasefire Proposal, Plans 'Very Major Attack,' Cancels at Last Minute (May 2026)
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announces four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime, saying Castro was not under any physical threat when he fired. The federal charges against Sosa-Celis and Aljorna had already been dismissed after video contradicted the officers' account.
Stars and Stripes reporting confirms that no systematic civilian harm tracking occurred during the active Iran war campaign, consistent with the IG's findings. The gap spans the entire duration of operations, including documented incidents at Minab and reported hospital strikes.
From: Pentagon IG: Hegseth Dismantled Civilian Harm Safeguards During Active War (May 2026)
Trump formally announces the attack is called off, saying 'serious negotiations are underway.' Gulf states intervened because a resumption of strikes would likely close the Strait of Hormuz, devastating their own economies. The decision to strike or stand down was made without congressional notification.
From: Trump Rejects Iran Ceasefire Proposal, Plans 'Very Major Attack,' Cancels at Last Minute (May 2026)
Adm. Brad Cooper testifies before the House Armed Services Committee, 81 days into a war without congressional authorization. Members press him on civilian casualties and the Minab school strike. Congress has still not voted on an AUMF.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
Admiral Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, testifies before the House Armed Services Committee. Rep. Adam Smith (ranking member, House Armed Services Committee) presses Cooper to acknowledge the US killed more than 150 schoolgirls. Cooper confirms a formal investigation is underway but calls it 'a very complex investigation' because 'the school itself is located on an active IRGC cruise missile base.' He declines to give a timeline and will not acknowledge US responsibility. A Pentagon inspector general report has separately reopened scrutiny of the incident, according to reporting by Middle East Monitor and Global Security.
From: Minab School Strike: US Tomahawk Cruise Missile Kills At Least 156 at a Primary School
The case proceeds alongside other Trump DOJ prosecutions of political adversaries and civil society organizations, including the April 21 indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Legal observers describe both cases as part of a systematic 'vengeance tour' targeting Trump's critics and political enemies.
From: DOJ Indicts James Comey Over Instagram Photo in 'Vengeance Tour' Prosecution (April 2026)
The SPLC prosecution proceeds alongside the Comey indictment and other Trump DOJ actions targeting political adversaries and civil society organizations. The cases are collectively described by legal observers and press freedom advocates as a systematic campaign to suppress political opposition through the threat of criminal prosecution.
From: DOJ Indicts Southern Poverty Law Center Over Its Paid-Informant Program (April 2026)
Judge Waverly Crenshaw dismissed the Tennessee smuggling charges, finding that absent Abrego Garcia's successful lawsuit challenging his removal, 'the government would not have brought this prosecution.' The Justice Department appealed the dismissal to the Sixth Circuit.
From: Kilmar Abrego Garcia Deported to El Salvador Despite Withholding Order
Around February 10, 2026, Trump purchased $1-5 million in Dell stock and publicly urged Americans to 'go out and buy a Dell computer.' Roughly two weeks after the purchase became public, the Pentagon signed a five-year, $9.7 billion software contract with Dell. Separately, a June 4 Public Citizen report found that of 27 corporate donors to Trump's White House ballroom demolition project, 14 received new or expanded federal contracts totaling more than $50 billion in the six months after giving — led by Lockheed Martin, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Palantir. Watchdog groups CREW and Public Citizen describe both episodes as pay-to-play arrangements that put the weight of the presidency behind entities with a financial relationship to Trump personally or his signature construction project.
Castro is arrested in Cameron County, Texas, and held in custody in Brownsville (CBS Minnesota, NBC News).
A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upholds part of Judge Ana Reyes's order in Talbott v. United States, barring enforcement of the ban against the challengers already serving in the military. Judge Wilkins writes that the policy's 'foundational premises' are 'animus-filled,' resting on the idea that persons with a 'false gender identity' are unfit to serve.
From: Second-Term Transgender Military Ban: Executive Order 14183
On June 10, 2026, Trump signed the 'Secure America Act,' providing approximately $69.5 billion for ICE and CBP through 2029 -- including roughly $38 billion for ICE and $350 million earmarked specifically for arrests in 'sanctuary jurisdictions' -- after the bill passed the House 214-212 and the Senate 52-47 following a prolonged Democratic standoff. Within weeks, ICE arrested more than 10,000 people nationwide in a five-day span in late June, roughly doubling the agency's prior daily pace, after leadership ordered 80% of officers onto arrest operations seven days a week. Two senior ICE enforcement officials, Russell Holt and Peter Berg, were reassigned amid reported internal frustration that arrest numbers weren't rising fast enough, and multiple outlets reported an agency-wide daily arrest quota of roughly 3,000 arrests aimed at 1 million annually -- a quota government counsel denies is official policy.
On June 16-17, 2026, the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota announced felony conspiracy, assault-on-a-federal-officer, interstate stalking, solicitation-of-violence, and destruction-of-government-property charges against 15 people linked to 'Direct Action Minnesota,' tied to protests against Operation Metro Surge. Defense attorneys call the felony charges prosecutorial overreach, noting roughly half of similar prior cases nationally have been dismissed. Two days later, Human Rights Watch published a report concluding the operation the defendants were protesting had itself involved unlawful killings, unlawful detentions, and racial profiling.
The Fact-Finding Mission asks the US government for information on the Lamerd strike and, on 24 June, for meetings with US officials. No reply had been received when the report was finalised (A/HRC/63/61, para 115).
The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran writes to the US government requesting information on the Minab strike, and on June 24 asks to meet the CENTCOM commander and the Pentagon's Civilian Protection Center of Excellence. The mission reports that it received no response before finalising its report.
From: Minab School Strike: US Tomahawk Cruise Missile Kills At Least 156 at a Primary School
On June 17–18, 2026, Trump and Iranian President Pezeshkian signed the 'Islamabad Memorandum,' a 60-day ceasefire extension reopening the Strait of Hormuz and dangling up to $25 billion in frozen Iranian asset releases. Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei endorsed it 'despite reservations.' Within eight days it collapsed: Iran struck the Singapore-flagged cargo ship M/V Ever Lovely and fired on other vessels near Hormuz with one-way attack drones on June 25, prompting a third round of US strikes on Iranian missile, drone, radar, and communications sites over June 25–27. A Qatari citizen died of shrapnel wounds aboard a vessel near the strait during the exchange and a second person was hospitalized, though Qatar's government has not attributed the death to a specific party. Iran's IRGC retaliated with ballistic missiles and drones against US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, and Trump publicly threatened that 'the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist' if strikes continued. It is the second documented ceasefire collapse in two months, again conducted without new congressional authorization.
Twelve of the 15 people charged are arrested the day the indictment is announced. The defendants include a Macalester College professor. The Department of Justice frames the group as having ties to antifa.
From: DOJ Charges 15 Anti-ICE Protesters with Felony Conspiracy in Minneapolis
Defense attorneys and a constitutional law professor say the underlying conduct alleged 'might at best warrant misdemeanor prosecution.' Reporting notes that roughly half of approximately 36 similar prosecutions of ICE protesters brought nationally have already been dismissed by judges questioning the government's evidence.
From: DOJ Charges 15 Anti-ICE Protesters with Felony Conspiracy in Minneapolis
Human Rights Watch publishes 'A Manufactured Crisis,' a 180-page report based on 136 interviews, concluding federal agents in Operation Metro Surge unlawfully killed two people, unlawfully arrested and detained hundreds, and engaged in racial profiling — a UC San Diego survey cited in the report found people of color were approximately 40% more likely than white residents to report agent encounters during the operation.
From: DOJ Charges 15 Anti-ICE Protesters with Felony Conspiracy in Minneapolis
Eight people are sent to Equatorial Guinea, all of whom US immigration judges had found would be persecuted or tortured if returned to their home countries (Third Country Deportation Watch).
The en banc D.C. Circuit makes a limited remand for the district court to decide whether to modify, suspend or dissolve the injunction in light of a revised reduction-in-force plan, while retaining jurisdiction over the appeal.
From: DOGE Shuts Down Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 'CFPB RIP'
Judge Sparkle Sooknanan rules for the League of Women Voters coalition, finding violations of the Social Security Act, Privacy Act and APA, and vacating the modified system.
The Justice Department files a notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, having called Judge Crenshaw's order 'wrong and dangerous' (ABC News, PBS NewsHour).
From: Kilmar Abrego Garcia Deported to El Salvador Despite Withholding Order
The D.C. Circuit grants rehearing en banc and vacates the April 2026 panel ruling halting the contempt inquiry.
From: Systematic Attacks on Judicial Independence and Defiance of Court Orders
NBC News reports that the department tried to compel four journalists (three from the Wall Street Journal, one from the Washington Post) to testify before a grand jury in a leak probe, then dropped the subpoenas after the outlets objected.
On June 23, 2026, US District Judge P. Casey Pitts ruled that ICE and DOJ's expanded courthouse-arrest policy was 'arbitrary and capricious,' restoring the pre-2025 rule limiting arrests at immigration courts to high-risk cases and reinstating a 12-hour detention cap. Within days, ICE agents arrested three men — from Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala — at Manhattan immigration courts, in what advocates describe as the first clear violations of two separate federal court orders barring such arrests. ICE denies violating any order but has not explained how the arrests fit within the ban's stated exceptions.
In two companion 6-3 rulings issued the same day, June 25, 2026, the Supreme Court held in Mullin v. Doe that the TPS statute bars courts from hearing non-constitutional challenges to TPS terminations, allowing DHS to end TPS for roughly 350,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians and throwing other TPS lawsuits into limbo. In Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, Justice Alito wrote for the majority that asylum seekers turned away before they cross the border have not 'arrived in' the US, so DHS's now-rescinded 'metering' policy did not violate federal law, reversing lower courts that had held it unlawful. Justice Sotomayor dissented from the bench: 'The consequences of today's decision are predictable. More people will die. … More people will turn back and be subjected to violence.' The rights-relevant conduct documented here is the executive's TPS terminations and metering policy; the rulings are lawful adjudication that removed judicial checks on them.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani (D. Mass.) blocks key mail-voting provisions of the March 2026 executive order; Al Jazeera reports she found the measure 'likely violated the US Constitution' and would be impractical to implement before the midterms.
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
In Mullin v. Doe (6-3, Alito, J.), the Supreme Court held that the TPS statute bars judicial review of non-constitutional challenges to a termination and reversed the lower-court orders that had postponed the Haiti and Syria terminations. It also rejected the equal-protection claim at this stage. Justice Kagan dissented, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson.
From: Deportations to Haiti Despite Gang Control and Humanitarian Collapse
In the related metering case, the Supreme Court holds 6-3 that a non-citizen 'arrives in the United States' under the INA only on crossing the border, so the INA does not entitle a person standing in Mexico to apply for asylum or require officers to inspect them.
In a challenge to the earlier metering policy, the Supreme Court holds 6-3 that a non-citizen arrives in the United States under the INA only on crossing the border, so the INA does not entitle a person standing in Mexico to apply for asylum.
From: CBP One App Shutdown: 30,000 Asylum Appointments Cancelled, 270,000 Stranded
In Mullin v. Doe, a case on the 2025 Haiti and Syria terminations, the Court holds that the statutory bar covers all non-constitutional claims (CRS).
From: First-Term TPS Terminations for Six Countries Under White House Pressure (2017–2018)
The Supreme Court rules 6-3 that for-cause removal protections for FTC commissioners are unconstitutional, overturning Humphrey's Executor.
On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. Slaughter that for-cause removal protections for FTC commissioners violate separation of powers, upholding Trump's 2025 firing of Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter and overturning the roughly 90-year-old Humphrey's Executor precedent — a ruling that strips independence from agencies structured like the FTC, potentially including the NLRB and MSPB. In a companion ruling issued the same day (Trump v. Cook, 5-4), the Court separately held that Trump lacks authority to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook while her lawsuit proceeds, leaving the question of Fed removal power formally unresolved for now. Cook had been targeted based on a mortgage-fraud accusation from a Trump-appointed official that she says was pretextual retaliation for resisting political pressure on interest-rate policy.
In Trump v. Slaughter (No. 25-332), the Supreme Court holds 6-3 that the president may remove independent-agency heads at will, overruling Humphrey's Executor. The ruling validates removals such as Wilcox's as a matter of domestic law.
The Supreme Court declines Trump's petition to review the $5 million sexual-abuse and defamation verdict, and denies rehearing on August 17, 2026. A separate petition on the $83.3 million award, joined by the Justice Department, is filed in July 2026.
From: E. Jean Carroll: Jury Finds Sexual Abuse and Defamation; $83.3 Million Damages
National SNAP enrollment is 13% lower than in July 2025, with declines in every state except Alaska while unemployment holds steady. Arizona's caseload is down 52%.
In a new suit, Judge Friedman grants a preliminary injunction against the escort requirement on the Times's First Amendment retaliation claim (opinion).
In Trump v. Barbara (No. 25-365) the Supreme Court held EO 14160 invalid, 6-3. Chief Justice Roberts, writing for five justices, held that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship to nearly everyone born on U.S. soil; Justice Kavanaugh concurred on statutory grounds. Justices Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch dissented.
From: Executive Order Attempting to Restrict Fourteenth Amendment Birthright Citizenship
Reporting reveals that within days of Judge Pitts's order, ICE agents arrested three men — nationals of Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala — at Manhattan immigration courts. Advocates describe the arrests as the first clear violations of two separate federal court orders barring courthouse arrests. ICE denies violating any order but has not explained how the arrests fall within the narrow high-risk exceptions the ruling preserved.
From: ICE Arrests Three Men at Manhattan Courts Days After Federal Judge Bars Courthouse Arrests
ICE arrests more than 10,000 people nationwide in a five-day span in late June, roughly doubling the agency's prior daily pace, after leadership orders 80% of officers onto arrest operations seven days a week. Two senior enforcement officials, Russell Holt and Peter Berg, are reassigned amid reported internal frustration that arrest numbers weren't climbing fast enough. Multiple outlets report an agency-wide daily arrest quota of roughly 3,000 arrests aimed at 1 million per year; government counsel denies this is official policy.
ProPublica reports that Lunas Campos's three adult children have sued the companies running the camp, and reports on a nearly 300-page medical examiner's file showing he complained at least eight times about skipped or late antipsychotic doses and was held more than 100 days, and that staff dismissed a suicide attempt as a 'gesture.'
From: Camp East Montana: Beatings, Medical Neglect and Deaths at the ICE Tent Camp on Fort Bliss
Officers searching for a different person stop Salgado Araujo's vehicle; he is shot after DHS says he ignored commands and tried to ram an officer (CBS News).
On the morning of July 7, 2026, ICE officers in unmarked vehicles stopped a van carrying Salgado Araujo and three other people on their way to a construction site in Houston's Magnolia Park neighborhood and an officer shot passenger Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, in the abdomen, killing him. DHS later acknowledged that Salgado Araujo was not the person ICE was looking for; officers stopped the van because a man inside 'resembled the target.' DHS says he refused commands and 'weaponized his vehicle'; his family says he had lived in the US for 35 years with no criminal record. None of the four ICE officers wore body cameras. The Harris County Medical Examiner classified the death a homicide, and the Harris County District Attorney is convening a grand jury. In September the Texas Tribune identified the officer who fired as Gregory Feathers.
After Iran attacked three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on July 7–8, 2026, the United States launched strikes on dozens of targets along Iran's southern coast and President Trump, speaking at the NATO summit in Ankara, declared the June 'Islamabad Memorandum' ceasefire 'over,' calling Iran's leaders 'scum' and 'sick people.' A nightly US bombing campaign followed, extending to Abadan (home to Iran's oldest oil refinery), Bushehr, Qeshm and Kish islands, bridges and energy infrastructure in Hormozgan, and — according to Iran's atomic energy agency — the Darkhovin nuclear power plant construction site. The naval blockade of Iranian ports was reimposed on July 14. By July 18, Iranian authorities reported at least 50 people killed and more than 500 wounded in US strikes over three weeks; Four US service members were killed in Jordan and Iraq during Iranian retaliation. Days later, the Pentagon's official casualty system removed those four deaths from the Iran war tally. The campaign paused on July 25 to give mediation 'room.' No congressional authorization was sought, and a binding Senate war powers resolution failed 47–49 on July 23.
At the close of the NATO summit in Ankara, Trump says of the ceasefire, 'I think it's over,' calls Iran's leaders 'scum' and 'sick people,' and suggests reinstating the blockade, targeting infrastructure and possibly seizing Kharg Island. CENTCOM conducts roughly 90 more strikes on coastal air defense, surveillance, missile and drone storage, naval and logistics targets around Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Abbas, Sirik and Bushehr (NBC News).
After Iran attacks three vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, Trump says the ceasefire is "over" and the US begins a near-nightly bombing campaign; the naval blockade is reimposed on July 14.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
On July 9, 2026, ten days after the Supreme Court's ruling in Trump v. Slaughter, the White House fired the two Democratic members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, by email, and allowed the Republican commissioner, Christy McCormick, to resign. With the fourth seat already vacant, the bipartisan agency Congress created after the 2000 election to support state election administration was left with no commissioners and no quorum less than four months before the November 2026 midterms. The White House said the president may remove officials 'that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America's elections' and cited Slaughter as its authority. The EAC had not yet acted on a petition, backed by Trump's March 2025 executive order, to add documentary proof of citizenship to the national voter registration form.
Trump fires EAC commissioners Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland and accepts Christy McCormick's resignation, leaving the federal election-administration agency with no members (see eac-commissioners-purge-july2026).
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
In July 2026 the Justice Department served grand jury subpoenas on New York Times journalists who had reported on security concerns about the Qatari-gifted Air Force One. Federal agents delivered some of the subpoenas at reporters' homes. The department also sought phone records of journalists and of relatives, including one reporter's mother and two reporters' spouses, going back to January 1, 2026. The Times moved to quash, calling the subpoenas a bad-faith effort 'to punish The Times for its coverage.' On July 24, after U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian criticized the department's legal work, the government withdrew the subpoenas, acknowledging 'errors' and 'mistakes,' and said it would return to court if new subpoenas were needed.
DOJ serves grand jury subpoenas on Times reporters over Air Force One reporting, some delivered at their homes, and subpoenas phone records of a reporter's mother and two reporters' spouses. The subpoenas are withdrawn July 24 after a federal judge's rebuke (see doj-subpoenas-nyt-reporters-air-force-one).
From: Systematic Attacks on Press Freedom: Journalist Arrests, Detention, and Deportation
On the morning of July 13, 2026, a federal immigration agent shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian man in his mid-twenties and father of a 3-year-old, during an ICE vehicle stop in Biddeford, Maine. He was not the target of the operation. The Maine Attorney General's office said he 'allegedly tried to flee in the officer's direction'; the agent was placed on leave. After this killing and the July 7 killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas, ICE instructed officers to suspend most vehicle stops; the next day President Trump overturned the pause on Truth Social.
Votebeat reports that the EAC cannot update voting-system guidelines or take formal votes until at least three new commissioners are confirmed, although staff-level certification and payments continue.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and 24 colleagues demand the Pentagon complete and publicly release its investigation, reportedly submitted in April but still under senior military review.
From: Minab School Strike: US Tomahawk Cruise Missile Kills At Least 156 at a Primary School
Federal authorities give Minnesota investigators evidence collected after Pretti's killing, including body-camera video, as part of a handover covering the Good, Pretti and Sosa-Celis shootings. Pretti family attorney Steve Schleicher says U.S. Attorney Dan Rosen 'refused to confirm any cooperation agreement' (MPR News, PBS NewsHour).
From: Federal Agents Kill ICU Nurse Alex Pretti During Minneapolis Immigration Protest
Federal authorities give Minnesota investigators hard drives of statements and body-camera video, along with Good's 2014 Honda Pilot, more than six months after the shooting. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty calls the material 'voluminous' and gives no timeline for a charging decision (MPR News, FOX 9).
From: ICE Agent Kills Renee Good, American Mother of Three, in Minneapolis
ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations is instructed to suspend most vehicle stops nationwide, except for serious criminal targets (CBS News).
The US military reimposes its naval blockade on vessels travelling to and from Iranian ports at 20:00 GMT, after strikes on Bushehr and Bandar Abbas overnight and on Abadan, Mahshahr, Qeshm and Kish on July 14. Iran's deputy foreign minister says the US 'destroyed the interim peace deal' (Al Jazeera).
The US military reimposes its blockade on vessels travelling to and from Iranian ports and coastal areas at 20:00 GMT, less than a month after lifting it under the June memorandum, as CENTCOM said it was striking Iranian capabilities 'used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz' (Al Jazeera).
Camp East Montana, a tent detention camp for up to 5,000 people on the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, is the largest immigration detention facility in the United States. A July 15, 2026 joint report by Human Rights Watch and the ACLU, based on 80 interviews including 71 people detained there, documents beatings by masked guards, collective punishment, life-threatening medical neglect, filthy conditions, coercive removals to third countries and, in some cases, what HRW calls enforced disappearance. At least three men died there between December 2025 and January 2026. The death of Cuban detainee Geraldo Lunas Campos on January 3, 2026 was ruled a homicide by asphyxia, and the autopsy says he became unresponsive while being physically restrained. An internal ICE investigation identified unreported uses of force, medical neglect and missed suicide checks. DHS calls the allegations 'categorically false.'
Trump posts on Truth Social that ICE cannot give up 'THE TRAFFIC STOP!' and tells it to stay 'judicious, fair and smart'; the White House confirms the post overturns the DHS memo (CBS News).
Human Rights Watch and the ACLU publish an 84-page report on Camp East Montana, the ICE tent camp on Fort Bliss, documenting beatings, medical neglect and the January 3, 2026 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, which the medical examiner ruled a homicide.
From: Record ICE Detention Deaths and Medical Care Payment Halt
An Associated Press analysis of FEMA data since 1989 finds Trump has averaged about a month and a half to approve major disaster declarations, versus about three weeks in his first term and under Biden; about 70% of his second-term approvals took at least a month. He approved 80% of requests from Republican governors and about 60% from Democratic governors. The White House says there is 'no politicization.'
From: FEMA Dismantlement — Budget Cuts, Mass Layoffs, and Destruction of Disaster Response Capacity
On July 17–18, 2026, during the renewed US bombing campaign against Iran, US airstrikes hit highway bridges, tunnels and energy infrastructure in Iran's Hormozgan province and, according to Iranian state television, an electricity and desalination plant; the regional water utility said a seawater pumping station and power transformer serving the Bunji desalination plant in Jask were destroyed. The head of Hormozgan's water utility said drinking water to 20 villages with about 10,000 residents was 'completely disrupted.' Iranian state media reported at least seven people killed in the bridge strikes; the Associated Press, citing Iranian authorities, reported eight. The UN noted a reported strike on a desalination plant in Hormozgan that disrupted safe drinking water for thousands, and reminded all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law. CENTCOM's description of that night's targets, as quoted by AP, did not mention water infrastructure. Iran, for its part, struck a power and desalination plant in Kuwait the same week.
NBC News reports Salgado Araujo had lived in the US for 35 years with no criminal record and was the father of three. DHS has not provided evidence for its account. His legal team says a 'white substance' cited in an FBI search warrant was salt construction workers use to stay hydrated.
US strikes hit bridges and energy infrastructure in Hormozgan and other southern provinces. Iran's Health Ministry spokesperson reports at least 38 killed and more than 400 wounded by US strikes; Iran strikes a power and desalination plant in Kuwait (AP via PBS NewsHour).
AP, citing Iranian state television, reports US airstrikes hit an electricity and desalination plant in Hormozgan; overnight strikes damaged two tunnels and a bridge. The Hormozgan water utility says drinking water to 20 villages of about 10,000 people is 'completely disrupted' after a seawater pumping station and power transformer serving the Bunji desalination plant were destroyed (Middle East Eye).
Iran's Atomic Energy Organization accuses the US of striking the Darkhovin nuclear power plant construction site in Khuzestan; the IAEA says the site contained no nuclear material when last inspected and that it is investigating the reports (RFE/RL).
Iran's Atomic Energy Organization accuses the US of striking the Darkhovin nuclear power plant construction site in Khuzestan. The IAEA says the site was in the very early stages of construction, contained no nuclear material, and repeats Director General Grossi's call for military restraint near all nuclear-related sites.
From: Repeated Strikes Near Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant
UN News notes a reported strike on a desalination plant in Hormozgan that disrupted drinking water for thousands, alongside damage to Kuwaiti power and desalination plants; the UN spokesperson says all parties must respect international humanitarian law.
The Times' sealed motion to quash is unsealed, showing the department sought phone records of a reporter's mother and two reporters' spouses. Judge Subramanian freezes enforcement of the phone-record subpoenas.
Dignified transfer of 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, Pvt. Isabella Gonzales and Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, killed by an Iranian missile strike in Jordan and a drone detonation in Erbil, Iraq (Reuters via Military Times).
The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights announces it is rescinding disparate-impact provisions from its Title VI regulations, saying the Obama administration 'weaponized' the doctrine 'as a tool for the radical left, forcing schools to make race a factor.'
From: Education and HHS Strip Disparate-Impact Protections From Civil Rights Rules Without Public Comment
The House adopts H.Con.Res. 89 (214–208), a non-binding war powers resolution; the Senate rejects a motion to discharge Sen. Van Hollen's binding S.J.Res. 180, 47–49 (Roll Call).
The House adopts non-binding H.Con.Res. 89 by 214-208; the Senate rejects a motion to discharge the binding S.J.Res. 180 by 47-49.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
On July 24, 2026, the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services each published final rules, effective immediately and issued without notice and comment, eliminating disparate-impact liability from their regulations implementing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The rules follow Executive Order 14281 and a December 2025 Justice Department rule doing the same. Federally funded schools, colleges, hospitals and health-care providers can no longer be found in violation of these agencies' Title VI rules for policies that have discriminatory effects on the basis of race, color or national origin; only intentional discrimination remains actionable. Sixty civil rights organizations warned the change will harm students of color.
After the judge criticizes the department and says he would quash the subpoenas, the government withdraws them, admitting errors, and says it would return to court if new subpoenas were needed.
The US and Iran pause strikes for a second consecutive day on July 26 as Omani, Qatari and Pakistani mediators exchange messages; UN Ambassador Mike Waltz says Trump is giving talks 'a little bit of room' (Al Jazeera).
NBC News reports the Defense Casualty Analysis System fell from 18 dead and 482 wounded to 14 dead and 420 wounded, with the four July deaths and 207 wounded moved to a new 'Overseas Operations' category. Pentagon spokespeople attribute the change to 'temporary data disruptions.'
Following the Supreme Court's June 2026 decision in Mullin v. Doe, Haiti's TPS designation is terminated effective July 27, 2026; USCIS later tells employers that work permits issued to Haitian TPS holders are no longer valid proof of work authorization. Syria's termination takes effect at the same time (USCIS, Pew Research Center).
From: Mass Termination of Temporary Protected Status Across 11 Countries
Comey's lawyers file motions to dismiss, arguing the case 'effectuates a yearslong campaign by the President' and alleging the Secret Service conducted warrantless surveillance of him, including tracking his phone at the request of DOJ's 'number three' official.
From: DOJ Indicts James Comey Over Instagram Photo in 'Vengeance Tour' Prosecution (April 2026)
Comey's lawyers ask a North Carolina federal judge to dismiss his April 2026 threat indictment as vindictive and selective prosecution, alleging the Secret Service conducted warrantless surveillance of him at the request of a high-level DOJ official.
From: Weaponization of the Department of Justice: Retaliatory Investigations and Prosecutions
In J.O.P. v. DHS, a nationwide class action brought by asylum seekers who entered the United States as unaccompanied children, a 2024 settlement bars DHS from deporting class members before their asylum claims are decided. On July 29, 2026, U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher, a Trump appointee in the District of Maryland, held DHS in civil contempt after at least 107 protected people (54 confirmed class members and 53 the government itself had flagged as potentially protected) were deported anyway. She rejected DHS's 'good faith' defense. DHS then deported E.L.A., a 19-year-old class member who had been wrongly removed to El Salvador in March and returned in August, a second time on September 1. On September 25, Gallagher held DHS in contempt again, finding it had violated three separate court orders, and ordered E.L.A. returned.
Two small jets carry 13 more people to Equatorial Guinea (Third Country Deportation Watch).
NPR reports that since 2025 the Justice Department has charged more than three dozen people in at least 10 cases under the Civil War-era conspiracy-to-impede statute (18 U.S.C. § 372), all involving opposition to ICE, with nearly 50 more indicted on other conspiracy statutes in Michigan, Texas and Minnesota. A six-defendant Broadview, Illinois case was dismissed in spring 2026 over alleged prosecutorial misconduct; in Spokane, two defendants not accused of property damage were convicted at trial.
From: DOJ Charges 15 Anti-ICE Protesters with Felony Conspiracy in Minneapolis
A Defense Department estimate provided to Congress puts the cost of keeping an average of 2,500 Guard members in Washington through January 20, 2029 at about $1.4 billion for fiscal years 2027-2029. About 4,600 personnel from DC and 23 states and territories were deployed as of late July (PBS NewsHour/AP).
From: Illegal National Guard Deployments to Los Angeles and Attempted Deployment to Chicago
Class counsel, including the National Immigration Project, announce the ruling. The court rejected DHS's argument that self-reporting wrongful removals after the fact demonstrated good faith.
On August 11, 2026, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a final rule barring federal Medicaid and CHIP payment for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgical interventions for transgender minors (Medicaid beneficiaries under 18, CHIP enrollees under 19), while expressly preserving the same treatments when used for other purposes. The rule, effective October 13, 2026, applies in roughly 17 state Medicaid programs that cover the care. On September 2, 2026, attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia, joined by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, sued in federal court in Massachusetts, arguing the rule exceeds CMS's authority under the Medicaid statute and violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Spending Clause.
The Defense Department's Section 1057 report on civilian casualties in 2025, published by CBS News, assesses that the April 28, 2025 strike near Saada 'more likely than not' caused civilian harm. Its summary table lists 68 civilians killed and 47 injured (the narrative paragraph reverses the two figures), and it states that ex gratia payment 'was determined to not be appropriate.'
From: US Airstrike Kills 61 to 68 African Migrants in Yemen Detention Center
The Defense Department's Section 1057 report on civilian casualties in 2025, published by CBS News, assesses that the April 17, 2025 Ras Isa strike killed 80 civilians and injured 171, and states that ex gratia payment 'was determined to not be appropriate.' Airwars, which recorded at least 84 civilian deaths, said the admission 'should prompt major international outcry.'
From: US Strikes on Ras Issa Fuel Port Kill 84+ Civilians in Yemen
CMS releases a final rule barring federal Medicaid and CHIP payment for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery for transgender minors, consistent with the administration's executive orders on gender-transition care for minors (CMS says the rule does not depend on them). Documented separately in this archive.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Transgender Rights and Gender Identity Recognition
The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, operated for ICE by CoreCivic and reopened in March 2025, is the nation's only family detention center. Under the Flores settlement, children generally may not be held in such facilities for more than 20 days. In August 2026 the Texas Tribune reported that more than half the children at Dilley had been held beyond 20 days, at least 60 for more than 100 days, and one family for 323 days. An estimated 1,560 minors were held beyond 20 days over a six-month period. Children described insects, moldy food, untreated medical problems and weight loss. In August 2026, U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee, citing 'serious concerns' about compliance, appointed a special master and an independent monitor with authority to make unannounced visits to Dilley and to CBP facilities in the Rio Grande Valley, El Paso and San Diego. DHS said the judge was 'trying to demonize' its personnel and that 'being in detention is a choice.'
Pew Research Center reports that 11 countries' TPS designations have been fully terminated and terminations are pending for Ethiopia and Somalia, affecting an estimated 1 million of 1.3 million recipients; Venezuelans account for 59% (over 615,000) and Haitians 32% (334,900). TPS remains only for El Salvador, Ukraine, Sudan and Lebanon.
From: Mass Termination of Temporary Protected Status Across 11 Countries
Human Rights First's ICE Flight Monitor reports that July 2026 saw a record 18 third-country transfer flights to 10 countries, including first-ever flights to Belize and Dominica and repeat flights to the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ghana, Sierra Leone and others, within a total of 329 removal flights that month.
From: Third-Country Deportations to Rwanda, Ghana, and South Sudan
After hearing argument on January 22, 2026, the en banc court dismissed W.M.M. v. Trump as moot because the three named plaintiffs had since been deported under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The lawfulness of the invocation was left undecided.
From: Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to Accelerate Venezuelan Deportations
U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns dismisses the Justice Department's March 2026 lawsuit, which sought to claw back nearly $1 billion in federal grants and cut off future funding over alleged antisemitism, finding the incidents cited 'too isolated and episodic to support a plausible inference that any institutionalized noncompliance with Title VI persists at Harvard to this day.'
From: Coercion of Universities: Funding Freezes, Research Cuts, and Demands for Political Compliance
On August 14, 2026, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), led by Trump-nominated Comptroller Jonathan Gould, conditionally approved a national trust bank charter for World Liberty Trust Company, N.A., an affiliate of World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture co-founded by the Trump family. ABC News and Fox Business reported a 38% ownership stake held by 'an entity affiliated with Donald J. Trump and certain of his family members' (ABC attributes it to World Liberty Trust, Fox Business to World Liberty Financial). The bank would issue and manage the USD1 stablecoin, hold the reserves behind it, and provide digital-asset custody, which places a company in which the president's family holds a large stake under the supervision of a federal regulator the president controls. Sen. Elizabeth Warren called it 'the most brazen act of self-dealing our financial system has ever seen.' The OCC said its staff acted 'consistently with their statutory duties and ethical obligations'; the White House said there are 'no conflicts of interest.'
Sen. Elizabeth Warren calls the approval 'the most brazen act of self-dealing our financial system has ever seen'; Americans for Financial Reform says the OCC 'cannot credibly or impartially supervise' the bank.
Secretary of State Rubio sanctions ICC President Judge Tomoko Akane and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, bringing US sanctions to nine of the court's 18 judges, both deputy prosecutors, the former prosecutor and one staff member.
From: Executive Order Sanctioning International Criminal Court Officials
Citing 'serious concerns' about compliance, Judge Dolly M. Gee appoints Andrea Sheridan Ordin as special master and Dr. Paul Wise as independent monitor over Dilley and CBP facilities in the Rio Grande Valley, El Paso and San Diego. They can make unannounced visits and will issue quarterly compliance reports.
Thirteen more people are transferred, including six who had refused to disembark in Liberia, bringing the total to 66. That month three detainees report being threatened at gunpoint and assaulted at the hotel where they are held (Third Country Deportation Watch).
A staff report released by Ranking Member Jamie Raskin finds second-term clemency has erased nearly $1.7 billion in restitution, fines and forfeitures, and identifies 290 'influencers' who advocated in 624 cases, yielding 197 successful clemency bids.
The Supreme Court pauses Talwani's initial order, finding the states' challenge premature because the order had not yet been carried out.
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
Pennsylvania's health department confirms two measles-associated deaths among unvaccinated Lancaster County residents, the state's first measles deaths in 35 years. One was a newborn who contracted measles before birth. HHS and the CDC initially extend condolences.
On August 25, 2026, Pennsylvania confirmed two measles-associated deaths of unvaccinated Lancaster County residents, one a newborn infected before birth -- the state's first measles deaths in 35 years. The next day HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. publicly suggested the deaths 'may even have been altogether fabricated by one of the Governor's hopeful staffers.' The CDC then declined to include the Pennsylvania deaths on its national dashboard and shifted to counting measles deaths from National Center for Health Statistics mortality data rather than state reports. By September 30 Pennsylvania had reported five measles-associated deaths and 943 cases, while the CDC's national tally listed two deaths among 3,887 confirmed U.S. cases in 2026; by mid-September the 2026 count was more than double the 2025 count at the same point in the year.
A day after Pennsylvania confirms two measles-associated deaths in unvaccinated Lancaster County residents, Kennedy says the deaths 'may even have been altogether fabricated by one of the Governor's hopeful staffers.' The CDC later leaves them off its national count. Documented separately.
From: HHS Dismantlement Under RFK Jr. During the Worst Measles Outbreak in 30 Years
The Postal Service unveils a 95-page final rule requiring states to submit pre-reviewed voter lists to a federal portal, mandating new barcoded ballot envelopes, and allowing USPS to reject ballots for voters not on approved lists.
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issues an order keeping in place his block on the Bureau of Prisons' February 2026 policy, which would end hormone therapy, gender-transition surgeries and 'social accommodations' for transgender federal inmates. The judge had first blocked the policy in June, describing it as 'reverse engineered' to implement the executive order. The bureau has reported providing hormone therapy to more than 600 inmates.
From: Executive Orders Targeting Transgender Rights and Gender Identity Recognition
Lancaster County Coroner Stephen Diamantoni says measles appears on the newborn's death certificate as a contributing condition, while maintaining that measles did not contribute to the death, which a forensic pathologist attributed to a ruptured spleen. The CDC's X account thanks Kennedy for his 'efforts to clarify conflicting information from Pennsylvania officials' and says the governor's office declined federal assistance.
Airwars' review of the first 12 months of strikes finds the single search aircraft reached the area 45 hours after people were reported in the water. It counts about 25 declared survivors across the campaign who were never recovered, and three rescued (Airwars).
Airwars counts 69 boats struck and at least 227 people killed between September 2025 and August 2026. Of 28 people who survived an initial strike, only three were rescued; only 26 of the dead have been publicly named, and the campaign's legal basis and target list remain classified.
From: Operation Southern Spear: Lethal Drone Strikes on Caribbean and Pacific Drug Boats
The Justice Department appeals the dismissal to the First Circuit, where the government's appeals of the ruling restoring Harvard's frozen research funding and of the decision protecting Harvard's ability to enroll international students are also pending.
From: Coercion of Universities: Funding Freezes, Research Cuts, and Demands for Political Compliance
The Solicitor General files a petition for certiorari in United States v. Talbott (No. 26-272), calling the D.C. Circuit's ruling an 'unprecedented intervention into military affairs.' In May 2025 the Supreme Court had separately frozen a nationwide injunction issued in a Washington state challenge (Shilling).
From: Second-Term Transgender Military Ban: Executive Order 14183
After a month-long lull, the US struck Iran's Larak Island on August 30, 2026, and on September 1 launched what Trump called 'large and powerful' strikes on air defense, radar, maritime, mine-laying and communications sites along Iran's coast, from Sirik and Bandar Abbas to Ahvaz and Asaluyeh. Iran's health minister reported 18 killed and 108 wounded that day, including victims of a strike on a wedding in Sirik. Trump said Iran 'will be hit again at a much harder and higher level' and that he preferred 'almost total control of the Hormuz Strait' to negotiations. The House voted 220–204 on September 15 to end US hostilities; on September 24 the Senate rejected the House measure 49–50 — the 14th Senate war powers vote since February. On September 26 Trump rejected an Iranian seven-day roadmap to reopen the strait and end the war, saying Iran was 'losing so badly.'
The CDC declines to include the Pennsylvania deaths in its official measles count, saying available information does not establish whether measles caused or contributed to them.
Airwars publishes its analysis of the three Lamerd strikes, naming victims and finding a damage radius more than three times that shown in the manufacturer's promotional material.
On the night of September 1, 2026, during renewed US strikes on Iran's Hormuz coast, a building hosting a wedding celebration in Kuhestak, Sirik County, Hormozgan province, took a direct hit. The Hormozgan governor's office named four dead, including a 4-year-old boy and a 16-year-old; Iranian media later reported a fifth death, a 22-year-old woman who died in hospital. Iranian figures put the wounded at 60–70. Reuters and The New York Times independently verified footage showing a wedding was under way, and three of four weapons experts consulted by Reuters judged the munition likely American rather than an errant Iranian air-defense missile. CENTCOM said the US military 'never targets civilians' and has not accepted responsibility; Vice President JD Vance said the US was investigating while voicing skepticism of Iranian reports. The Iranian Red Crescent asked the International Criminal Court to investigate.
CENTCOM strikes air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites in Sirik, Konarak, Bandar Abbas, Jask, Asaluyeh, Ahvaz and Qeshm. Iran reports a wedding struck in Sirik and seven deaths in Khuzestan; Iran's health minister later reports 18 killed and 108 wounded. The IRGC strikes US-linked sites in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq and the UAE (Al Jazeera; NBC News; Reuters).
After being returned to the US in early August, E.L.A. is detained in Louisiana and deported to El Salvador again.
The Texas Tribune publishes recordings from more than 160 emergency calls obtained through public records requests, including calls about suicidal ideation, a COVID-19 patient lacking oxygen and an overdose.
From: Camp East Montana: Beatings, Medical Neglect and Deaths at the ICE Tent Camp on Fort Bliss
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announces that 'Operation Rotten Apple,' an ICE surge across New York State from July 27 to August 29, 2026, resulted in 2,197 arrests. DHS highlights 10 individuals with serious criminal records but does not give a criminal-history breakdown for the rest; Mullin says criminal history is not a determining factor in enforcement against people in the country illegally. Gov. Kathy Hochul suggests agents are arresting people 'not committing crimes' to meet quotas.
The Hormozgan governor's office names four dead, including a 4-year-old and a 16-year-old, with 60+ wounded. CENTCOM says the US 'never targets civilians.' The Iranian Red Crescent writes to the ICC prosecutor (Al Jazeera).
Trump tells reporters, 'It was a very heavy attack last night, and we're prepared to do another one any time we want' (NBC News).
Attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia, joined by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, sue HHS in federal court in Massachusetts, arguing CMS lacks authority under federal Medicaid law to categorically exclude the treatments and that the rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Spending Clause.
ProPublica reports that Justice Department leaders in Washington quashed, over the Minnesota prosecutor's objections, a charge of deprivation of rights under color of law against Castro, allowing only false-statement counts. AUSA Matthew Evans wrote to the victims' lawyers: 'This is being directed by the Main Justice and the US Attorney. I objected in the strongest possible terms and fought it as hard as I could.'
With ACIP not having met in 2026 after a federal court order 'essentially disbanded' the panel as Kennedy had reconstituted it, four medical societies publish 2026-27 respiratory vaccine recommendations in JAMA. CDC posts guidance carrying forward last year's flu and COVID-19 recommendations.
From: HHS Dismantlement Under RFK Jr. During the Worst Measles Outbreak in 30 Years
Vice President JD Vance says the US is investigating but is 'extremely skeptical' of the reports (RFE/RL); Iranian officials report a fifth death, a 22-year-old woman (Reuters via Army Times). Reuters reports the UN Secretary-General is 'deeply alarmed.'
Castro is indicted on six counts of making false statements to the FBI about the shooting, the first Justice Department prosecution of an officer for conduct during Operation Metro Surge. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Evans, who had reportedly told the victim's lawyers that DOJ officials blocked a civil rights charge, is fired as news of the indictment breaks.
A divided appellate panel refuses to pause the ruling pending appeal but expedites the case.
Reuters publishes analysis by four weapons experts; three judge the weapon likely American rather than an errant Iranian air-defense missile (Reuters via Arab News).
The State Department sanctions Banco Exterior de Cuba, two nickel mining firms, two energy companies and Raul Castro's grandson Fidel Ernesto Castro. UN human rights chief Volker Turk warns that children are dying for lack of medicines (Al Jazeera).
From: Intensified Cuba Sanctions Regime: Blackouts, Hospital Shutdowns, and Collective Punishment
Government Executive reports that Cameron Hamilton has been confirmed as FEMA's first permanent administrator of the second term, while states remain uncertain about federal disaster aid after the administration raised the bar for federal disaster aid and moved to eliminate snow assistance; Tennessee creates a $44.2 million state recovery fund to cover potential FEMA gaps.
From: FEMA Dismantlement — Budget Cuts, Mass Layoffs, and Destruction of Disaster Response Capacity
In September 2026 the Justice Department pressed ahead with a 'grand conspiracy' investigation into whether officials who investigated Donald Trump over the past decade, including over Russian interference in 2016 and his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, conspired to deprive him of his civil rights. On September 10, prosecutors presented former CIA Director John Brennan with a subpoena to appear on October 15 before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida, the courthouse of Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon. The lead prosecutor, Joe diGenova, resigned the same day amid reported White House and DOJ frustration over the pace of the probe. Brennan's lawyer called it an attempt to 'frame somebody for a crime that is complete fiction.' Former FBI personnel who worked on the Mar-a-Lago investigation have also been subpoenaed. No one has been charged.
Joe diGenova, leading DOJ's investigation into whether officials who investigated Trump conspired against his civil rights, resigns the same day the Brennan subpoena is delivered, amid reported DOJ and White House frustration over the probe's pace.
From: Weaponization of the Department of Justice: Retaliatory Investigations and Prosecutions
Former CIA Director John Brennan is presented with a subpoena to testify on October 15 before a grand jury in Judge Aileen Cannon's Fort Pierce, Florida courthouse.
From: Weaponization of the Department of Justice: Retaliatory Investigations and Prosecutions
In the year after the 2025 reconciliation law (H.R. 1, the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act') took effect, participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program fell by roughly 5 million people, according to USDA data and analyses by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported by ABC News and Tradeoffs -- a 13% national decline between July 2025 and June 2026 that touched every state except Alaska while unemployment held steady. Arizona's caseload fell by about half. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' director said the declines were 'far deeper and far faster than the Congressional Budget Office predicted.' On October 1, 2026, states began absorbing 75% of SNAP administrative costs, with benefit cost-sharing tied to error rates to follow, prompting states to tighten verification further.
ABC News, citing CBPP, reports roughly 5 million people, including more than a million children, have lost SNAP access since the law took effect -- faster than CBO projected. Documented separately.
From: One Big Beautiful Bill: $1 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts and $295 Billion in SNAP Cuts
CBS's 60 Minutes airs a hidden-camera investigation of brokers, including Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl, charging fees CBS put at $300,000 to $3 million to seek pardons. Former pardon office head Ed Martin, who left the post nine days before the broadcast, calls the brokers 'snake oil salesmen.'
On September 14, 2026, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, speaking at a G20 energy ministers' meeting in Houston, finalized repeal of most of the 2024 carbon pollution standards for coal- and gas-fired power plants -- including the requirement that long-running coal plants and new baseload gas turbines cut carbon emissions by 90% through carbon capture -- and proposed rescinding all remaining greenhouse gas standards for the power sector. The power sector produces roughly a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. EPA asserted that power plant emissions have 'no material impact on global climate change' and that associated health harms are 'too uncertain, conjectural, remote, and convoluted' to tie to the sector.
Brennan's lawyer confirms the subpoena, calling the case an attempt to 'frame somebody for a crime that is complete fiction.'
With the motions to dismiss still pending before Judge Louise Flanagan, Comey asks to move the September 30 arraignment to January 2027 and the October 21 trial to February 2027.
From: DOJ Indicts James Comey Over Instagram Photo in 'Vengeance Tour' Prosecution (April 2026)
In USPS v. California (26A305), the Court denies the administration's request to enforce the rule, finding it 'unlikely to succeed on the merits.' Justice Kavanaugh concurs that officials lack time to implement it; Justices Alito and Thomas dissent.
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
Seven House Republicans join Democrats; Rep. Zach Nunn says 'with the negotiating window closed, sustained combat operations now require congressional authorization' (Al Jazeera).
Talking Points Memo publishes records obtained by American Oversight showing the FBI has built a national 'NSPM-7 Joint Mission Center' to oversee investigations under the memorandum, with Eastern and Western sections, DOJ attorneys from the Deputy Attorney General's office, and 10 IRS Criminal Investigation agents and 3 analysts detailed to it.
A war powers resolution passes the House with seven Republican votes.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
The ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee places a hold on a proposed sale of 20,000 MK-84 bombs, 20,000 BLU-117 bombs and 20,000 penetrator warheads to Israel, citing insufficient assurances of lawful use and civilian protection in Gaza and Lebanon (UPI; Newsmax).
From: US Arms Transfers to Israel During ICJ Genocide Proceedings
In September 2026 President Trump announced he was "banning" CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, focusing, in a federal judge's words, on "the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity" of their reporting; according to the court's order, their journalists' hard-pass credentials were revoked on 18 September. The Justice Department later defended the ban on national-security and "professionalism and decorum" grounds. Judge Timothy Kelly granted a temporary restraining order, finding nothing in the pre-suit record suggesting national security motivated the revocations and that required process had not been followed. On 24 September the outlets' reporters were initially denied entry despite the order; access was restored that day after the court ordered the government to respond.
After appearing in Hennepin County court on the state charges on September 17, Castro pleads not guilty in federal court in St. Paul and is released on a $75,000 bond with GPS monitoring, surrender of his gun and passport, and travel limited to southern Texas and Minnesota.
Bloomberg, as reported by ThePrint, says officials involved in the internal investigation described outdated imagery, a misclassified site, AI-assisted targeting and time pressure as a "cascade of preventable failures." The findings have not been publicly released.
From: Minab School Strike: US Tomahawk Cruise Missile Kills At Least 156 at a Primary School
The Intercept reports that the decision on whether to charge the federal agents who killed Pretti will likely be made by the next Hennepin County Attorney. No one has been charged.
From: Federal Agents Kill ICU Nurse Alex Pretti During Minneapolis Immigration Protest
The Intercept reports that the decision on whether to charge the federal agents in the Good and Pretti killings will likely be made by the next Hennepin County Attorney, Cedrick Frazier or Anders Folk, since Moriarty is not seeking reelection.
From: ICE Agent Kills Renee Good, American Mother of Three, in Minneapolis
UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights Ben Saul posts a briefing note concluding there are reasonable grounds to believe the reported 68 attacks that killed 223 people constituted crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law (The Guardian, Al Jazeera).
From: Operation Southern Spear: Lethal Drone Strikes on Caribbean and Pacific Drug Boats
CNN, MS NOW and Politico sue Trump, chief of staff Susie Wiles, communications director Steven Cheung and Secret Service director Sean Curran. CNN is dropped from the UN trip and the other networks suspend the TV pool (CBS News).
Report A/HRC/63/61 finds reasonable grounds to believe the US carried out the strike and that it 'amounts to the war crime of launching an indiscriminate attack resulting in loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects' (paras 116, 127–128).
The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran (A/HRC/63/61) finds reasonable grounds to believe the US carried out the strike, that the school building was the intended point of impact, and that the strike amounts to the war crime of making a civilian object the object of an attack.
From: Minab School Strike: US Tomahawk Cruise Missile Kills At Least 156 at a Primary School
UN Special Rapporteur Ben Saul publishes a briefing note finding that the attacks on boats are 'serial extrajudicial killings' and that there are 'reasonable grounds to believe' they constituted crimes against humanity of murder (briefing note, paras 23–25; Al Jazeera).
The Justice Department cites 'minimum standards of professionalism' and protection of classified information; the White House sends notice letters after 10 p.m. giving the outlets until Friday to respond (CBS News; ABC News).
ProPublica reports that FBI Director Kash Patel purged the CR-15 public-corruption squad 'agent by agent' and that the bureau's pay-to-play investigation arising from Navatek CEO Martin Kao's guilty plea, which had reached members of Congress including Sen. Susan Collins, died after Trump returned to office. Collins's office denies the allegations and no one working for her has been charged.
From: Weaponization of the Department of Justice: Retaliatory Investigations and Prosecutions
The three governments sign a security agreement at the UN General Assembly that increases U.S. involvement in Greenland's defence while affirming Danish sovereignty and Greenland's right to self-determination.
From: Annexation Threats: Greenland, Panama Canal, Canada — Territorial Expansionism
Judge Kelly signals the circuit's process for terminating credentials was not followed (ABC News).
In the week of September 21, 2026, the White House aired a 30-second television spot labelled 'Paid for by the U.S. Government' on Fox News and Newsmax. In it Trump pledges to 'defeat communism, socialism, and Marxism in America,' rapid images of Trump appear alongside on-screen claims such as 'LARGEST TAX CUTS IN HISTORY,' and UFC CEO Dana White calls him the 'the toughest, most resilient person I've ever met'. The White House called the ads 'educational and unapologetically patriotic' public service announcements and said they are 'clearly not political' because Trump is not on the ballot. Rep. Jamie Raskin called the spending potentially 'felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes.' On October 1, Raskin and Rep. Whitesides asked the GAO and the Office of Special Counsel to investigate under the appropriations ban on 'publicity or propaganda,' the Anti-Deficiency Act and the Hatch Act. Sen. Maggie Hassan sought records from White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
The court orders the hard passes immediately restored. Reporters are denied entry that morning; after the court orders a response by 12:30 p.m., access is restored (ABC News).
Lawyers for subpoenaed current and former FBI personnel who worked on the Mar-a-Lago investigation ask Judge Cannon whether her secrecy order permits them to testify.
The Senate rejects H.Con.Res. 89, which would have directed removal of US forces from hostilities against Iran absent authorization. Sen. Thom Tillis votes yes for the first time, citing the expired 60-day War Powers clock (CBS News; Stars and Stripes).
The Senate rejects H.Con.Res. 89 by 49-50; Republicans Collins, Murkowski, Paul and Tillis vote yes, Democrat Fetterman votes no.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
On September 25, 2026, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's emergency request in DHS v. League of Women Voters (No. 26A308), staying a district court ruling that had barred the Department of Homeland Security from using its overhauled SAVE system to check the citizenship of registered voters. In a June 22, 2026 decision, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan had held that DHS's merger of immigration records with Social Security Administration data violated the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, writing that the government 'knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote.' NPR, citing the Solicitor General's filing, reported that since May 2025 the modified SAVE has checked more than 65 million voters in 26 states and flagged 28,635 as potential noncitizens; in Texas, about one in five of the 2,724 voters initially flagged were later confirmed as citizens. Justices Jackson, Sotomayor and Kagan dissented.
Sen. Maggie Hassan writes to Chief of Staff Susie Wiles seeking records on the ad's cost, funding source and official purpose.
Gallagher holds DHS in contempt again, finding violations of three separate orders. She orders E.L.A. returned with his property and documents, requires at least five business days' notice and a cited legal authority before any future removal attempt, and bars execution of a removal order until USCIS decides his asylum claim or the settlement expires.
The Court stays a ruling that DHS's overhauled SAVE voter-citizenship system violated federal privacy law, allowing its use inside the pre-election quiet period (see scotus-revives-save-voter-citizenship-database).
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
ICE posts mortality reviews of people who died in its custody to its public records library. The American Prospect reports 33 reviews of deaths since 2019 were released and that nearly all documented significant failures of medical care. Within about four days the documents are removed; The Intercept reports that eight reviews of 2025 deaths were de-indexed and that three-quarters of those eight documented substandard medical care.
From: Record ICE Detention Deaths and Medical Care Payment Halt
Trump says 'I reject their proposal' and that 'that deal would not be acceptable,' arguing Iran is 'losing so badly' (Al Jazeera).
Trump rejects a Qatar-mediated Iranian seven-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for lifting the blockade and releasing frozen assets.
From: Iran War: Crime of Aggression — War Launched Without Congressional Authorization
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez tells the UN General Assembly the US blockade is "an act of collective punishment"; Trump says "I don't think we'll need the military" (Al Jazeera).
From: Intensified Cuba Sanctions Regime: Blackouts, Hospital Shutdowns, and Collective Punishment
The Texas Tribune identifies the officer who fired as Gregory Feathers, rehired by the agency within the past two years after a prior retirement. Harris County DA Sean Teare is convening a grand jury with assistance from the Texas Department of Public Safety.
After a divided D.C. Circuit panel declines to pause Lamberth's order, Solicitor General D. John Sauer files an emergency application (Trump v. Kingdom, No. 26A416) asking the Supreme Court to allow the Bureau of Prisons policy to take effect, arguing the district court denied prison administrators 'the substantial deference they are due.'
From: Executive Orders Targeting Transgender Rights and Gender Identity Recognition
The CDC confirms two measles-related U.S. deaths in 2026, using National Center for Health Statistics mortality data rather than state health department reports, while Pennsylvania has reported four. Johns Hopkins' Amesh Adalja warns the gap 'looks like either incompetence or concealment.'
In D.V.D. v. DHS, the Supreme Court, 6-3, grants the administration's emergency request to lift lower-court requirements that people facing third-country removal get meaningful notice and an opportunity to raise fear of torture or persecution. Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson dissent. The Court agrees to hear the merits in December 2026.
From: Third-Country Deportations to Rwanda, Ghana, and South Sudan
September 30 is the deadline for states to bring payment error rates within the law's thresholds; from October 1, states pay 75% of administrative costs. Advocates report states tightening verification and benefit timeliness to cut error rates.
Pennsylvania announces a fifth measles-associated death, an unvaccinated Lancaster County resident, with 943 confirmed cases across 39 counties and at least 176 hospitalizations in 2026.
Nebraska's data show at least 1,090 people lost or were denied Medicaid under the requirement between May and August. KFF finds 14% of 4,089 subject applications were denied and 7% of 7,280 renewals lost coverage; 92% of renewal losses were for failing to provide requested information, not for failing to work.
From: One Big Beautiful Bill: $1 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts and $295 Billion in SNAP Cuts
Judge Victoria Calvert dismisses DOJ's suit for Georgia's unredacted voter list, holding Title III of the Civil Rights Act reaches only public records. CBS reports it is DOJ's 26th loss in 30 such suits.
From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration
OFAC's Cuba Sanctions Regulations (31 CFR part 516), implementing Executive Order 14404 of May 1, 2026, take effect with secondary-sanctions exposure for foreign financial institutions; amendments to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations narrow authorized travel (OFAC).
From: Intensified Cuba Sanctions Regime: Blackouts, Hospital Shutdowns, and Collective Punishment
Bloomberg Law reports 37 deaths in ICE custody in fiscal year 2026 (October 2025 to September 2026), the deadliest fiscal year on record for the agency, including five presumed suicides and 13 deaths still pending autopsy or investigation.
From: Record ICE Detention Deaths and Medical Care Payment Halt
Raskin and Rep. Whitesides ask the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Special Counsel to investigate under the propaganda rider, the Anti-Deficiency Act and the Hatch Act.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for Vermont charges five protesters, aged 22 to 80, with obstructing access to a federal facility for blocking doors at an ICE facility in Williston on several occasions between February and July 2026. The offense carries up to 30 days in prison. An attorney for some of them calls the move 'an effort to intimidate folks' (NHPR).
From: DOJ Charges 15 Anti-ICE Protesters with Felony Conspiracy in Minneapolis
Trump nominates Philip Aubart, the prosecution's point person in the case, to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
From: DOJ Indicts James Comey Over Instagram Photo in 'Vengeance Tour' Prosecution (April 2026)
Good's family files a Federal Tort Claims Act wrongful-death suit against the United States, and a civil rights conspiracy suit naming ICE agent Jonathan Ross, Stephen Miller, former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Gregory Bovino and others. The second suit alleges a coordinated effort to 'target, harass and terrorize Somali and Hispanic Minnesotans' (CBS Minnesota, Mother Jones).
From: ICE Agent Kills Renee Good, American Mother of Three, in Minneapolis
CDC reports 3,887 confirmed measles cases in 2026, reported by 47 jurisdictions, 95% outbreak-associated, with 42 new outbreaks. Through mid-September the 2026 count was more than double the 2025 count at the same point.
From: HHS Dismantlement Under RFK Jr. During the Worst Measles Outbreak in 30 Years
Trump nominates Philip Aubart, the prosecutor who became the point person in the Comey '86 47' case, to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
From: Weaponization of the Department of Justice: Retaliatory Investigations and Prosecutions